Who Am I Living For?
by Horan Around
Summary: A young girl and her little sister are stuck with Aunt Wu, desperate to leave. When the trio comes along, they bravely agree to let the two girls join them. Danger and Adventure tempts the two. A Sokka/OC, Zutara, Taang, Teo/OC. I suck at summaries
1. The Meeting

_I was sitting around a fire, laughing with Mommy, and Daddy was at the table working on something. Mommy had gone to the sink to grab Sela's bottle, and screamed when she reached the window. Daddy had jumped up and ran to her, shoving her to the ground. I screamed, and then Sela was in my arms, crying. There was a blast of fire, and flames engulfed our home. I gripped on tight to Sela and tried to run, the smoke choking my lungs. Sela was struggling in my arms, trying to run back to Mommy. She cried and cried when I made it outside, and I remember someone picking me up, rushing through the woods and towards the ocean. My throat was still scratchy, and Sela kept her choke hold on me. They set us down against a tree and motioned for us to be quiet. I remember blue eyes, and they had facial hair. I kept rubbing Sela's back and watched as our savior ran back into the woods, leaving us to die. A giant spider hunkered over us, spinning its web around me, leaving Sela to fend for herself. I tried escaping, but the hold was too strong, too forceful. _

_ "Sela! Run!"I screamed, but she just sat there while a fire bender came up behind her, preparing to strike._

"Wake up, Rori! Aunt Wu wants us to be prepared!" I snapped up in bed. The sheets were tangled around me, and Sela was sitting on the edge, her feet dangling to the floor. She had a comb in her hand and was brushing through her thin golden brown hair. I passed a shaky hand over my face, trying to steady myself. _It was just a dream. Sela is fine. _I felt her shift on the bed, and I looked up to see her stretching a grimy hand to me. I grabbed it and took the comb from her, brushing it behind her before tying it into a knot at her neck. It was silky smooth, and I wished my hair was more like hers. Instead, mine was thicker, and curled at the ends when it got hot. Her eyes were hazel colored, and I brushed a stray piece behind her ear. I was glad Aunt Wu had taken us from those woods. I really was. She gave us food, and a home, and she was mostly a very nice lady. While we had been sitting in the woods, she told us, there was a war going on around our home. When I asked about the man who had taken us from the house and rushed us to the beach, she said he was probably fire nation and was planning on taking us prisoner. Therefore, we believed everything Aunt Wu said. But there was something wrong with her, the way she beats us when we backtalk, saying it was for our own good, and how she smoked leaves when she got shaky.

I loved Sela more than anything, and I refused to let anyone hurt her. If Aunt Wu tried to beat her, I would do the first bad thing that came to my head, forcing her attention on me and saving Sela. She used a whip, one that had thorns and left scars along my back and legs. She was eleven, and I was fifteen almost sixteen. Our house had been burned down when we were four and eight. I wouldn't let anyone toch her for months afterward, keeping her in my sight and not letting anyone near her. I had spent months lying awake at night, listening for a branch to break or the sound of fire crackling. It had taken me a year to go around fire, and I was still hesitant when I had to light it, although my actions were much surer of themselves than before. I still kept an eye on her, although I trusted her more than before. I vowed that as soon as I got the chance, I would take Sela and we would run off together, make a new home and make real friends, instead of the wacko's here.

I finally slipped out of bed and pulled my clothes on, just a fancy looking tunic that Aunt Wu had gotten me, one that went all the way to the floor to cover and scars on my back and legs. I gave Sela a kiss on the head as I headed to the tea shop, ready for whatever Aunt Wu would throw at me. Mang greeted me in the kitchen, trying to trip me.

"Aunt Wu says there are going to be very special visitors today, so make bean curd puffs. And tea." I sighed and rolled my eyes while pulling out the mixing bowl

"Aunt Wu always says there are going to be visitors. And the only reason you believe her is because there always are visitors. Because the whole village relies on it." I told her. She just stuck her tongue out at me. Since she was Aunt Wu's legit niece, she was made Aunt Wu's assistant. And she got her fortune read every day.

"Just make the puffs and shut up, or I'll tell her Sela spilled tea again." I turned to face her and gave her a death glare that sent her scurrying back to welcome some visitors.

Sela stumbled into the kitchen, carrying the pot we used for tea on her shoulder. I took it from her and put it over the tiny fire, and rinsing her hands in a bowl. She sighed and dried them off on her clothes, sitting on a stool while I heated the bean curd puffs. Mang came back in, looking dazed.

"I just met the man I'm going to marry. His name is Aang. He's sooo dreamy!" She said with a smile on her face. I laughed lightly and piled the finished curd puffs in a bowl, puring hot tea into cups and setting them onto a tray. I handed the bowl to Sela, who grabbed one out and stuffed into her mouth before I could protest. I rolled my eyes for the second time that day, and carried the tray of tea into the room. Mang trailed behind me, probably trying to get a good look at "the man shes going to marry". He was probably thirty and had a wife with him. Mang didn't like to pay attention to details.

"Oh, Rori! Aunt Wu said I was going to meet my true love!" Somi told me with a smile on her face, while she practically skipped out of the room Aunt Wu used for fortune telling. "He's going to give me a rare panda lily!" She said with a sigh.

"Congratulations." I told her blatantly. Mang, on the other hand, got so excited and dreamy.

"That's so roman-" She started.

"Stupid." Sela finished. I elbowed her lightly while holding in a laugh. Mang glared at her and turned back to face Somi.

"What Sela meant to say was congratulations. I hope you have a hundred fat kids." I told her with a fake smile. I knew she took it to mean healthy, well fed kids, since she just smiled at me and turned to look at the visitors.

"I wonder if my true love will give me a rare flower.." Mang said while looking at a boy with arrows on his head. _Weird choice of tattoo. I would have gone with some type of bird. Something that symbolized freedom and flying away.. . _

"Good luck with that!" Tattoo boy shouted to her.

Somi giggled while whispering behind her hand to Mang. "Is that the big eared guy Aunt Wu predicted you'd marry?" She asked with a laugh. I smirked and headed over to the group of two guys and a girl.

"Hi, I'm Rori, this is Sela, my sister. If you need anything, just ask." I told them while setting the tray of tea on the ground in front of them Sela copied me, tripping over her shoe, almost spilling the bean curd puffs on tattoo boy. He caught her hands before they spilled, and a light blush covered both there faces. She turned away and stood up, while I looked at the boy beside tattoo boy, who was wearing some water tribe getup. I widened my eyes as I realized they were the same shade as the man who rescued us from the fire. I shook my head and stood back, yanking Sela away from tattoo boy as Aunt Wu stepped in. She gave me a glare with her overly made-up face and I mouthed a sorry while looking down.

"Welcome, young travelers. Now, whos next? Don't be shy." The water tribe boy turned and looked me over, while tattoo boy just sat there, looking from water tribe boy to the girl sitting beside him. She looked water tribe too, but when tattoo boy looked at her, she jumped up.

"Guess that's me!" She ran with Aunt Wu to the fortune telling room. water tribe boy stuffed a bean curd puff in his mouth and smiled brightly when he realized how delicious they were. I slumped down as soon as Aunt Wu was gone, leaning against the wall and crossing my legs. Sela sat beside me, looking tattoo boy up and down. Water tribe boy offered some to me, but I shook my head, and he offered some to Sela, then tattoo boy.

Tattoo boy glanced up at me, then Sela. "I'm Aang, by the way. And this is Sokka." I tilted my head at Aang, his ears WERE pretty big.

"Mang was right. You do have big ears. Ar you gonna marry her?" I asked with an earnest look on my face. I laughed out loud at the scared look on his face, like a dear caught in headlights. "I'm only kidding, Mang just loves you, and thinks your gonna marry her. You might want to set her straight. And anyways, it's nice to meet you." He let all the air out of him and settled back down.

"Soo. . what do you think they are talking about back there?" Aang asked while rubbing his neck.

"Boring stuff I'm sure." Sokka supplied. I nodded my head to him. At least someone agrees with me. "Love, who shes gonna marry, how many babies shes gonna have."

"Yeah, dumb stuff like that." Aang bit his nails, and I realized what he wanted to do.

"You know, bathroom is right down the hall and to the right. You can't miss it." I winked at him as he stood up. Sokka kept eating the bean puffs while relaxing onto the pillows. A little monkey bat thing came out of nowhere and stole it, while I laughed and pet the thing. Sela really warmed up to it. It jumped on her shoulder and tried to feed her a bean puff, and she pet it and cuddled it.

"So. Why are you here?" Sokka asked me while sipping tea.

"Oh. I- uh. Fire nation burned down my house and Aunt Wu saved us. So. . here I am. . repaying my debt to her." I shrugged it off and grabbed the empty bowl, standing to take it to the kitchen. Sela stood up to follow me, laughing while the monkey thing circled her shoulders and fell to rest on the top of her head. "You can stay here. I'll be back in a second." I told her. She sat back down and began petting the top of her head. I hurried to the kitchen, passing under Aang as he jumped all the way to the ceiling. _So he was an air bender? But those are extinct. Wait. so are flying monkey type things. . what were they. FLYING LEMURS! _I gasped as I realized something big must be going on with that trio. Aang floated back to the ground as he saw me, and I rushed sat him to set the bowl in the kitchen sink.

"I can explain!" He whisper shouted to me.

I turned to face him, he was nearly six inches shorter than me, a little taller than Sela. "You have nothing to explain. Your just a visitor." I told him harshly. I don't know why he felt the need to tell me what was going on, he was just here for a visit.

"No, listen, I'm the avatar." I gasped and looked over him again. His type of clothes hadnt been worn in nearly one hundred years. He was an AIR BENDER. The fire nation had killed all of them. Or so they thought.

"Y-y-your an avatar!" I almost shouted. I ran my hands through my hair, the ponytail coming out and dropping to the floor. He flicked his hand up and it flew into the air. He easily caught it and held it out to me. I'm sure my eyes were huge, I was just so surprised that this eleven year old was the avatar! the one who was suppose to save us from all this fire nation crap! I ran my hands through my hair again before taking the hair band from him and tying it back into its ponytail.

"Well good luck on rescuing the world." I told him while rearranging some dishes on the counter. Questions were running through my mind, but I bit my lip to keep from voicing them.

"Your not going to lecture me on how I shouldn't have disappeared? Or how I'm hiding from everyone? Or how I should be out learning the elements instead of visiting some fortuen teller?" He began poking my shoulder, forcing me to lean over the burner.

"Of course I want to! But I'm not going to. It's your business what you do. I'm not a part of your group, and I'm not a part of our destiny. You'll do whats right. I can feel it." I COULD feel it. Ifelt it in the way he held himself. The way he was so sure of his actions. I smelled something burning in that instant. My mind flashed back to memories of the smoke enveloping me, and I immediately yanked my head forward and slapped my hands over the piece of hair that had been burning. I didn't feel any heat from it, only the essence of a tickling sensation. Aang looked at me stunned.

"What?" I asked while grabbing a knife to cut the dead ends off before it became a problem. I didn't care if it made my hair more uneven than before, I just wanted to be rid of the pieces that melted together.

"Nothing. Thats just. . the least someone has told me about myself since I woke up." I cocked my head at the way he said woke up, but turned around when he opened his mouth to explain.

"Your friend should be done with her fortune telling now. And Aunt Wu would kill me if she found out you were in the kitchen." He nodded and headed out the way he came, back to where Sokka was watching Sela balance on one foot, petting Momo with her hand, and balancing a tea tray in the other hand.

"Looks like someone had a pretty good bathroom break." Sokka said while turning to face us.

"Yeah, while I was in there-" Aang started. I hurried to Sela and grabbed the tea tray, gently pushing the Flying Lemur off her head, just as Aunt Wu came in.

"Whos next?" Aunt Wu asked in her sweet voice.

"Okay, lets get this over with." Sokka said while standing up.

"Your future is full of struggle and anguish. Most of it self inflicted." She said with a straight voice.

"But you didn't read my palms or anything!" He complained. I laughed while he shoved his palms in her face.

"I don't need to. It's written all over your face." She told him in a tired voice. I laughed harder and Sela began chuckling, these kinds of people came in at least once every few days, and all of them left feeling worse than before, usually tripping on the way out or stepping right into a rain storm. I finally calmed down when Sokka glared at me, and then Aunt Wu tsked under her breath. I straightened up at that and put a steely face on. I was going to get so many lashings for today.

"You there, come with me." She told Aang. He got up and followed her into the bone room. The water tribe girl sauntered in and sat down on the pillow, her legs crossed.

"Hi, I'm Katara!" She said cheerily. She sounded about thirteen.

"I'm Rori." I told her while slowly sitting down.

"And I'm Sela! Who is this?" Sela asked while the flying lemur jumped onto her shoulder again.

"That's Momo. He's Aangs flying lemur." Katara answered.

"Momo." Sela said, I guessed she was rolling it around on her tongue, because she said it a few more times while stroking the soft fur.

"So what are you guys doing here?" I asked while Momo ran in a circle around me and Sela.

"Well. . . " Sokka began. "We were out in the woods when we saw this man getting attacked by a platypus bear and we finally got the bear away from him and then he said he got his fortune read by Aunt Wu and he would have a safe journey and then if he met any visitors to give them and umbrella, and then he gave us an umbrella and then it started raining so we decided to come get our fortunes told but all this stuff is just mumbo jumbo and frankly I don't see what is so great about her." He said all this in one breath and as soon as he finished gulped air down.

"He pretty much summed it up." Katara told me. "What about you? You look nothing like Aunt Wu." I let out a giant sigh and wiped my hand across my forehead.

"Phew, I thought we were twins for a while." They laughed easily and I smiled at them before telling them my real story. "Well when we were little our village was attacked by fire nation soldiers and someone took us from the house and Aunt Wu found us and took us in. So we are staying here while paying for her saving us." Katara looked actually interested in what I was saying, so I continued on. And it felt good to finally tell someone my side of the story.

"I don't know what happened to my parents, If they are alive and well, or if they are gone. I only remember the color of the mans clothes who saved us. I wish I knew his name so I could thank him, but Aunt Wu would never let us leave. I'm saving up my money so we can leave. I don't know where we would go, much less how we would get there." At that moment, Aang and Aunt Wu strolled out. I jumped up, yanking Sela to her feet. Momo jumped off her shoulder and ran to Aang, climbing on his shoulder.

"I guess we are leaving." Katara said while standing up. I nodded at her and stepped out of the way. Sela stuck by my side, and I felt her grabbing at my clothes. She could predict when we were going to get a lashing, even while Aunt Wu was still being nice to visitors. I clenched my hands and nodded as the trio filtered out. Right before Aunt Wu shut the door, Momo ran back in and hopped on Sela's shoulder.

"Woah, Momo!" I heard Aang call. He rushed back in, blushing and smiling as he reached around Sela's neck to grab Momo. He hissed at Aang and tried to curl up around her neck, but Aang just gripped tighter and pulled Momo out. "I'm sorry, I don't know what has gotten into him." Aang apologized while backing out the door.

"It is quite okay, Aang. Have a good day!" Aunt Wu called out while shutting the door. She turned to face us, where we were backed against the wall. Her voice turned malicious when she strode over to me, grabbing my hair. "How many times have I told you not to socialize? I raised you like my own daughter and you treat me like this?" She yanked my hair back to face up at her and I yelled out as she slammed me against the wall. Sela screamed and tried to get her to break the grip on me.

Aunt Wu grabbed her by the neck and shoved her against the wall, choking her. I screamed at her to let go and tried smacking her and pushing her. She slapped her hand against my face, and I felt blood start gushing out of my mouth. I coughed and spit at her, finally getting a good punch in to her face. I grabbed Sela away from her and cradled her in my arms, keeping her from being hurt again. She was taking deep breaths and I held onto her tightly.

"Don't touch me!" I screamed. She backed away and fixed her hair, glaring at me in the mirror.

"I have to be cloud reading, anyways. I'll finish what we started when I get back." I let out a sigh of relief as she left the room, tugging Sela with me to our apartment. I washed her face and neck first, muttering about how I was gonna kill that son of a bitch as soon as I got the chance, before I rinsed my mouth with water and cleaned my chin and face. My eyes were red, and Sela was openly crying. I settled her onto the bed before standing back up and putting my stuff in a bag. We were getting out of here soon, before Aunt Wu could set her hands on Sela. I heard the crowd cheering as Aunt Wu predicted that the volcano wouldn't hurt the village this year. I pulled Sela to her feet and snuck to the door, opening it just a bit to peer into the village center. I waited for Aunt Wu to begin her journey back before pulling Sela outside. She gasped when I did, before sprinting with me to the market place. Aunt Wu wouldn't look for us for at least an hour, more than that if someone went to her to get fortunes told. I kept pulling Sela untill we gat to Omaru's small house.

He was a good friend of mine, often letting me hide out there and eat for breakfast and dinner. I knocked on the door while Sela slipped her arms around my leg.

"Hello? Oh, hey Rori. Want to come in?" I nodded and snuck a glance back at the crowd before stepping in behind him. "Is this Sela?" He asked while holdng his hand out to her.

"Yes, and I can speak for myself." She told him while shaking his hand. Omaru was a year older than me, with dark brown hair and brown eyes to match. I had met him one day in the marketplace, and we naturally bonded. He was an earthbender, and he tried to see if I could earthbend, but it never clicked, so we had that knocked off my list. I could bend, I remembered doing it when I was tiny, but my parents repressed me from doing it, and I just couldn't figure out what it was anymore. "Rori, why can't we go and talk to Aang and them. I want to play with Momo." I looked down at her while sitting on a chair.

"Because that's the first place Aunt Wu will look for us. We need to lay low for a while, then we can go back." She looked down and wiped at her face. With my constant shielding her from the real world, she still acted like a five year old, I finally admitted to myself. I didn't know whawt to do. I was too young to be a mother, I couldn't raise her. I loved her, but taking her with me will be such a hastle.

"Well you can stay here as long as you like." Omaru told me. I shook my head and pulled Sela into my lap.

"We just need to stay here for a few hours. We will leave in a few hours." He nodded and gave my shoulder a pat while handing a few pieces of paper to Sela, along with some ink. I laughed while she used her fingers to paint. She painted a fire, a house, and Aunt Wu. Well a stick figure with long robes and a heavily made up face. I sighed and took the sheet from her, tearing it into small pieces. I let her color for a few more hours while me and Omaru talked, untill it started to get darker. I gave Omaru a hug goodbye and gathered Sela into my arms. She held onto me while I made our way back to the apartment. When I was in the village center, there was a loud blast, and then a stream of smoke rose up from the volcano.

"Oh no." I muttered. Sela cowered in my arms while I pushed through the crowds of people.

"Everyone! That volcano is gonna blow any second!" Sokka called. i turned to race towards him, letting Sela down and run beside me. "Aunt Wu was wrong!" He called out. There was a small group gathering hile people from the village back talked to him.

"If you won't listen to him, maybe you'll listen to me." Katara said calmly. I pushed through the crowd and stood beside her, preparing to back her up. I felt Sela step beside me, then over to Aang.

"I want to believe Aunt Wu and her predictions too, but my brother and Aang saw the lava with their own eyes!"

"Well, I heard Aunt Wu's prediction with my own ears." One of the village's older people offered up. I sighed in frustration and spoke up.

"Listen everyone. Aang is smarter than anyone of us here, and I suggest you believe him! Who wants to hear an ld lady on crack tell them their fortune? It's just the crack talking! The only reason she said that stuff is because its so obviously going to happen! Rayko, you have worn those same shoes every day for the past two years, of course your going to meet the love of your life in them! So shut up for once, and listen to what someone SMART has to say!" I yelled at the crowd. There was a long pause, and I saw Aang nod a thanks at me before swooping up to the rooftop.

"Please listen to me! You all are in danger! And we have to get out of here! You can't rely on Aunt Wu's prediction! You have to take fate into your own hands!" He called out. At that moment, another loud blast shook the village square.

"Look! Can your fortune telling explain that?" Sokka called out while pointing. There was a steady stream of smoke pouring out, and I was erally nervous now.

"Can your science explain how it rains?" Omaru asked Sokka. I punched him in the arm and then shoved him back, hard.

"Yes! Yes it can!" Sokka yelled back. None of the villagers looked frightened. They sauntered away, dispersing themselves.

I stepped into the huddle of us five, being me, Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Sela.

"They just won't listen." Katara told us exasperated. Sela was looking up at the clouds.

"But they will listen to Aunt Wu!" She said excitedly. Everyone looked at her while she explained her thinking. "If we can shape the clouds into shapes that predict bad things, then Aunt Wu will predict bad things. But we need Aunt Wu's cloud reading book. Rori, can you get it for us?" I nodded and backed up, looking over my shoulders to make sure noone was looking. I pushed up from the ground and did a backlfip to the roof, landing lightly on my feet. I stepped to the window where Aunt Wu's room was, where she kept all of her psychic stuff. I slid in through the window, caerfully dodging her desk, reaching under some papers to grab a key that unlocked her dresser, where she kept the cloud reading book. I stuffed it into my shirt, and was fixing to jump out the window, when I heard the door start to click open. I jumped up on the desk and grabbed onto the ceiling bars, sliding into the shadows. I had a view of outside, and I could see Aang and them biting their hands. I looked down and saw Aunt Wu below me, striding to the window. I motioned for Sela to hide, and she did, behind a cart. I sighed silently and kept my breathing steady while Aunt Wu waved to everyone below. They waved back excitedly, and I slid down, praying the floor wouldn't creak. I moved behiind Aunt Wu, trying to keep her back to me. The second she turned from the window, I slid out of it, grabbing onto a pole so i could slide down to meet everyone. They cheered as soon as I was out of the window, and I slapped my hand to my head before grabbing another ceiling rafter and positioning myself so I was hidden in the dark. Aunt Wu turned back to the window and laughed, waving again. Her head was right below my stomach, but she never once turned up. I felt the book start slipping from my stomach, and I stretchd as far as I could so that I could use one hand to yank the book into my hands. I felt sweat start to drip on my fae from the force of exertion I was using holding myself up. Just as the first drop fell, Aunt Wu turned back inside. I slid from my hiding place and dropped to the ground, running to the group and pulling them behind a corner. Sela hurried to catch up to us as I passed her the cloud book. Sokka and Katara high fived me, while Aang just hugged me tightly around my stomach. I smiled and hugged him back while Sela flipped through the book.

"There. We need to get the clouds to look like that. Katara, your a water bender, and Aang, your an air bender. You two can shape the clouds. But you need to get up to the clouds to shape them. How. . ." She tapped her head, and looked up at the sky.

Sokka gasped and yelled out "Appa!" I turned my head to him and tilted it.

"Yeah. We need to go up-a. But how?" Aang and Katara smiled and laughed.

"No, Appa! My flying bison." Aang told me while pulling me and Sela towards a barn. I almost screamed. That thing was huge. Sela squeeled and ran up to it, hugging and petting its giant nose while it licked her. Sokka and Katara pushed me forward, even though all I wanted to do was go hide in a corner. It stopped playing with Sela and turned to sniff me. I stuck my hand out to it, petting its giant nose. I saw it open its mouth and I turned to run and scream, before I felt something giant and wet, like a wet blanket, smother my back. I shivered and tried shaking it off of me, but my hair was sticking up and I was pretty sure I had a disgusted face on me. I turned to face the thing, Appa, and I opened my mouth as I saw its mouth was open again. I was shoved to the ground again while it licked my head. I screamed and laughed while trying to shove it away. Appa was pretty funny. Eventually, Aang pulled his face away from me and I could stand up. I brushed my hair back down and looked at how high the saddle was. I know all Sela was thinking about was how something so huge could fly.

"So. . How do we get up?" I asked. Thats where I mad ethe first mistake. Aang smiled at me and shoved his staffto the ground, and all of a sudden I was being cradled in the wind. I laughed while I flew up, Sela beside me. He dropped us into the saddle, and Katara climbed up. She sat next to us, while Aang sat in front, right behind the bisons huge horns.

"I'll stay here and get Aunt Wu to look at the clouds. You guys hurry up." Sokka told us. Appa pushed off the ground, and I squeeled while we sailed high into the air. It took a few moments to get used to it, but then we were right next to a cloud. I saw Sela stick her hand into one, pulling it out to see it wet.

"So we know clouds are made of air and water. So between the two of us, we can bend it into any shape we want!" Aang told us.

"Exactly. Now here is what ou need to bend it into. A symbol of panic and doom. A skull." Sela said. Aang climbed up into the saddle, while telling me how to steer Appa. I nodded and slid down to the reins, gripping his head tightly with my legs. I found it was actually easier than it sounded, and in just a few seconds, I could twist him into the right direction. Sela made sure they were making the shape right, and I was steering Appa to keep him from messing up the cloud, but also make it easier for them to bend. I snuck a look back at them, and then it hit me. I remembered doing those same fluid motions. I was a waterbender. I could bend water. I almost shouted with joy, but then I heard Sela call out, and I yanked on Appa's reins. He turned sharply to the left, and I caught a glance inside the volcano. There really WAS lava. And a lot of it. I gasped as the hot air hit me, and we turned quickly. Aang slid behind me and took the reins from my hands, while I hurried to climb back up to the saddle. I ended up slipping and holding on for dear life to Aang, who had an arm wrapped around my stomach, and pulled me behind him. I held on to his stomach while we dipped below, and finally landed.

"You okay?" He asked while helping me down. I nodded and took a deep breath.

"Fine, just a little shooken up." I smiled at him as we slid down Appa's fur. As soon as all of us were back on the ground, we sprinted for the village center. Aang ran to the podium, where Aunt Wu was standing. I stood in the crowd, still hiding.

"We can still save the city!" He called out. "Sokka has a plan!" He gave all the attention to Sokka, who immediately started calling out orders.

"Lava is gonna flow downhill to this spot. If we can dig a deep enough trench, we can direct the flow to the river." He yelled out.

"If any of you are earth benders, come with me!" Aang called.

I heard the two twins call out, and then Sokka yelled after them.

"Everybody else, grab a shovel!" Another tremor shook the center, and everyone rushed to their place. I grabbed hold of Sela and tugged on Katara's sleeve.

"I can waterbend. I know what we can do." She nodded and followed me, and I ran towards the river. We needed to hurry. As soon as we got there, I told Katara my plan. "If we can get the water to slice through the earth, then we can cradle it and throw it across the river, do you think you can do it?" I asked while Sela backed up.

"We can try!" She yelled over the tremors. I nodded and tried familiar moves, moving the water into the air and then bringing it down. I felt my water connect with Katara's and we both pulled the ground up, and even though it was heavy, and I havent bended in years. It felt good to stretch muscles, and both of us kept at it, eventually getting about twenty feet cleared. We had just reached the other earth benders when a huge tremor shook the woods, and I looked up to see the lava start to over flow.

"Everyone needs to evacuate! We'll come for you when its safe!" Aang yelled. Katara and I pulled at the ground, trying to climb back up. Sela was standing there, staring at the fire. I yanked her out of her day dream and pulled her towards Aang and Sokka.

"Go! We'll get you when its safe!" Katara yelled at me. I shooke my head and grabbed a hold of her hand.

"We are sticking together." I told her firmly while we ran to catch up to the others. She nodded and squeezed my hand back, as we reached Aang. The lava began pouring out, and we stood in a line. Ash was falling on our faces, getting caught in our hair, but all we could do was watch as the lava spurted out. I watched as it burned the entrance, and then the small statues. I wanted to cry when I saw the flames, but I kept my ground. The lava reached our ditch, quickly filling up, and it wouldn't move fast enough down the ditch to the river.

"It's too much! It's gonna over flow!" Katara yelled out. Another, stronger, tremor shook the earth, and I almost lost my footing on the edge, I felt my foot slide down, and my hands start windmilling to keep balance. Sokka grabbed me around my waist and pulled me up, holding me while I shook. The heat was tremendous, I never felt so hot, except from the one night when we burned. Lava spewed out of the mountain, and Sokka pulled me back to safety. Before I could grab Sela, she stood firm beside Aang, grabbing his hand while keeping her eyes on the volcano. I saw him look at her, sending her some sort signal. A huge ball of lava landed right in the ditch, and I saw it form a wave. Aang let go of Sela's hand, rushing forward Sela ran right beside him, throwing her arms up in a move liek water bending, but more fierce. I wanted to scream, but shock overwhelmed me and I almost collapsed. Aang jumped into the air, and Sela lifted her hands, throwing them down the second Aang touched the ground. I was beyond surprised and shock when I was the lava actually follow Sela's movements. Aang forced air onto the lava, cooling it, and Sela looked like some fierce little kid as she bended s ball of lava away from her and Aang. My mouth was open, and I felt sweat drip down my face from the heat.

"Man. Sometimes I forget what a powerful bender that kid is." Sokka told us quietly. My legs were barely holding me up. Why could Sela bend fire? And I could bend water? What was going on? Could she bend water too? And could I bend fire?

"Wait. What did you just say?" Katara asked.

"Nothing. Just that Aang is one powerful bender." He grabbed my hand and squeezed while I felt my world tilt.

"I suppose he is." She said quietly. I stumbled to walk up to Sela and Aang, pulling Sokka behind me.

"What just happened?" I asked Sela while Sokka gave Aang a hug.

"I just. . .fire bended." She told me, a smile creeping onto her face. My mouth dropped open.

"How did you know what to do?" I asked while hugging her tightly.

"I don't know. I just did it." She answered while hugging me back. I turned to Aang, smiling.

"Thank you." I told him sincerely. He looked at me for a second, before hugging me around my waist. I squeezed him as tight as I could, trying to tell him how much I would miss him when he left.

"Well. . I guess we should go round up villagers then sleep." Katara told us. I nodded and headed down to the woods, where I knew everyone would be waiting. A few hours later, me and Sela were laying in our beds, listening to each other breathe.

"While me and Aang were up there, he asked me something." She told me while turning to face me.

"Whats that?" I asked while facing her.

"He asked me to come with them. He wants me to travel the world with them, Rori." I smiled, even though I was incredibly sad.

"Thats great, Sela. I'm so proud. You should go." I told her.

"No. I told him I wouldnt go if you couldnt go." I was shocked.

"No, Sela, you need to go, I don't care how much you don't like it. But you would love exploring the world with the avatar. Take it. We will meet again." I told her. I could see through the darkness.

"Rori. He told me he understood. He said he wanted both of us to come. Not just me. We can finally escape this hell hole." I snapped up at what she said.

"Watch that language."I told her sharply. "And I couldn't do that. He invited you, not me. You should go, I can handle Aunt Wu by myself." I told her. She sighed and turned to her back.

"Think about it, Rori." Was the last thing she said before her breathing evened out. I laid in bed, truly thinking about it.

The next morning, when I woke up, Sela was already gone. I sighed and cried into my pillow, wishing I really could go with her. Before long, Aunt Wu stormed up the stairs.

"Where is she?" She yelled at me while I jumped up from bed.

"I don't know what your talking about." I told her while sticking my nose in the air.

"The little brat of a sister you have." She slapped me across the face, and I held my ground, clenching my hands into fists.

"Don't call her a brat." I muttered. She turned to look at me, murder in her eyes.

"I never punished you from yesterday. And now youve back talked me." I gasped and ran for the door, trying to get away from her. I felt her grab my hair, and I twisted my head to look at her. I slapped my hand across her face, using my nails to make long scratches. I was sick of standing and taking what she threw it me. It was time to fight back.

"You little bitch!" She screamed at me. I ran from her and made it to the stairs. I glanced back over my shoulder, and saw her right behind me. She shoved my shoulder, and I lost my footing on the stairs. I stretched my arms to catch myself, but instead the hit a stair, and I ended up covering my head as I crashed down the stairs. I screamed out in pain, finally landing. I saw Mang standing beside them, looking at me shocked. I grabbed her collar and pulled her down to me yelling so she understood I was being serious.

"Go to the village center! Find Sela and tell her to leave! NOW!" I yelled. She nodded and bolted for the door, and I turned back to face Aunt Wu. I stood up on shaky feet, rushing to the kitchen, where I could find water. I bended some into the air, throwing it at the door when she rounded the corner. She screamed at me, grabbing the first thing she saw, a knife. I screamed and bended more water in between us, throwing it at her and running past her, back towards the stairs. I felt her scratch with the knife down my back, and I felt something drip down. I kept running, finally making it back into the fortune telling room. I looked around desperately for a weapon, but seeing none, I back against the wall as she stepped in the room. She no longer had a knife, but the second she saw me, her hands gripped my throat and pushed me up the wall, choking me. I saw the door open in front of me, and I wished that she would turn her head so I could kick her. She didn't, instead she tightened her grip. I couldn't breathe at all, and I was choking for air. Black was enveloping my vision, and I felt something call out to me, telling me to just accept I was going to die and give up fighting. I saw a figure walk behind her, and hit her over the head, knocking her out. I fell to the ground, trying to catch my breath. I sucked in air, still coughing, and I felt someone reach their arm down tome waist and haul me up. I stopped choking anough to realize it was Sokka, and he was pulling me towards the door.

"Bag. Bag" I gasped out. I pointed towards the table, where I had hidden my bag in case I needed to make a quick get away. He grabbed it and slung it over his shoulder, hurrying me to the door. I saw the whole village outside, Mang crying into her hands when she saw me. I was still breathing hard, but I could breathe, so I slipped out of Sokka's grip and rushed to Mang, squeezing her in a hug. She hugged me back, and I let go as Sokka put his arm around my waist and gently pulled me towards Appa. He helped me climb up, and Aang, settled me in the saddle. Sela hugged me fiercely, and I pet her hair while she cried into my shoulder. Sokka climnbed up beside me and Katara made Appa push off. I sighed and relaxed as soon as we were off the ground. I kept my back rigid, trying not to make it bleed anymore.

"Let's wrap it up." I looked to him, while he pulled something from a bag beside him. It was a long bandage, and then what I guessed was rubbing alcohol.

"I'm fine." I told them. But Sokka just pushed me onto my stomach, exposing my back to them. I saw him rip some of the bandage off, pouring the alcohol on it. Sela let go of me and sat across from me. Aang held my arms down, and Sokka pushed my back onto the ground. I held my breath as the scent of it hit my nose, and tensed my muscles. I didn't move when he oushed it against my skin, I waited for the sting to fade. A few minutes later, I had had to take my dress off, and Sela wrapped it around my stomach and chest. She gave me her dress to wear, while she was left in a slip and her tights. We agreed to stop in the next city we found and buy new clothes.


	2. Bato of the Water Tribe

Sleeping had been nice, we had stopped in a village and bought food, and some new and tougher clothes for me and Sela. Mine was thick black tights and a warrior skirt, that let all the pleats spin out when I twirled, and I had a tight tank top that was black and gold, and had a little side loop, where I hung a bag of water, and a dagger on the other side. I had on thick sandals, and Sokka had even bought me some arm bands I could use to block attacks. It fit me perfectly, and I felt so much more free in it. Sela's outfit was white with little green flowers coming from the corners. She wore a tunic and the pants were long but tied around her calves, and she had some sandals on. She kept her hair in a bun, but the way she held herself was stronger than before, and her ears were fine tuned to hear a branch crack from fifty yards away. I kept my hair in a tight braid down my back, though while we were riding, I usually just kept it down and flowing.

We had landed on a random island to rest for the day, and sent the boys to look for food while we set up camp. After we finished, we headed down to the water to see what was taking the boys so long.

"Did somebody lose something?" Katara asked while we trailed down the hill.

"No we found something." Sokka said. He held up what looked like a whales tooth sword, and then brushed aside some leaves to find a burnt arrow. I pointed at a nearby tree to show burn marks and some slashes,

"A water tribe must have ambushed a fire nation group, but they managed to force them down here." Sokka flew down the trail, and we followed him to the beach.

"So then what happened?" Aang asked. I nodded eagerly, waiting for Sokka to finish telling us the story.

"I don't know. The trail ends here." He said sadly. I looked around the beach and saw a huge ship just down the shore.

"What's that?" I asked. Everyone glanced up, and Sokka started to run towards it.

"It's one of our boats!" He yelled excitedly. Sokka and Katara made a mad dash to the boat, which was propped up against a rock. The rest of us trailed behind, equally as happy.

"Is this Dad's boat?" Katara asked.

"No, but it's from his fleet." Sokka said confidently. "Dad was here."

We ended up setting up camp down on the beach, and eating fish for dinner. I was laying on Appa's saddle, looking up at the stars, when I noticed Sokka playing with the fire. I jumped down and sat down next to him, nudging him with my shoulder.

"Watcha doing?" I asked.

"Thinking. We are so close to my dad, I can feel it." I patted his arm and stretched out beside him, leaning back on my elbows.

"Well, I'm sure you'll find him soon. Until then, your stuck with us." I told him with a quiet laugh.

"You know, the day my dad left, I tried to go with him. But he said I should stay where I was needed most. And that was the last time I saw him." I looked up at him, and tried to imagine him as a boy. I pictured him as a chubby boy, just because those are the cutest kids. I could see him morph into what he was now, stronger, more intellectual, even though he sometimes still acted like a kid. I loved the way his voice got deeper when he was being serious. It made me want to sit close to him and relish its warmth. Just then, I heard a twig snap somewhere behind us. I jumped up, Sokka following my movements.

"Whose there?" He called out.

"Like they are going to answer us. _Oh hey, its just me, a badger mole, digging for food! _ Yeah right." I told him while waving my hands about. Sokka had his boomerang out, so I grabbed my dagger and held it tightly in my hand. A man stepped into the light, and my body froze.

"Sokka?" The man asked. Even his voice was familiar.

"Bato?" He called out. I let my dagger drop to the ground, but I bent down and stuffed it into my pocket.

"Who the what now?" I heard Aang call out. I heard Katara sit up and Sela jump into a fighting stance.

"Bato!" Katara yelled excitedly.

"Sokka! Katara!" He yelled back, equally as happy. I shoved my thoughts of familiarity to the back of my head while Sokka and Katara strode up to meet him. This couldn't be the man who rescued us. It was just the shade of his clothes and the fact he had facial hair. His eyes must be common for water benders.

"It is so good to see you two. You have grown so much." Aang walked forward to bow to "Bato", while Sela came up and wrapped her arms around me.

"Hi, I'm Aang." He said easily.

"I'm Rori, and this is my little sister Sela." I supplied. I saw him look us over, shaking his head as if to get rid of a thought.

"Wheres dad?" "Is he here?" Sokka and Katara asked at the same time.

"No, he and the other warriors should be in the eastern earth kingdom now." A cold wind brushed past us, making us shiver. "This is no place for a reunion. Let's get inside." He took Katara and Sokka on each side of him, and I looked at Aang, he shrugged, and we followed them down the beach. I felt a little left out, how they had a friend we didn't know. Appa followed us while Bato told his story

"After I was wounded your father carried me to this Abbey. The sisters have cared for me since." He told us while we hiked through. The place smelled amazing, but I felt uncomfortable around all these people. "Superior, these are Hakoda's children, they have been traveling with the avatar. I found them by my boat."

The lady turned around, and I could see she had a wrinkled face, like Aunt Wu's. I shoved that memory to the back of my head as she addressed us.

"Young Avatar. It gives me great joy to be in your presence. Welcome to Abbey." She told him.

"Thank you!" He said politely. "It's truly an honor to be here. If there's anything-"

"What smells so good, Bato?" Sokka interrupted. I made a _Why did you just do that?_ face at him, even though he couldn't see it. I put my arm around Aang and squeezed it. I can't believe Sokka just did that.

"The sisters craft ointments and perfumes."

"Perfume? Maybe we could dump some on Appa. Because, he stinks so much, am I right?" I wanted to punch him in the face for acting so stupid. I felt Sela let go of me, and I grabbed the back of her collar to keep her from hurting anyone.

"You have your fathers wit." Bato told him. I was standing quietly while he led us to his room. I felt so out of place here, I wanted to leave.

When he slid open the door to his room, Katara practically screamed with excitement.

"Bato! It looks like home!" She said excitedly.

"Everythings here, even the pelts!" Sokka told us.

"Yeah, nothings cozier than dead animal skins." I had to agree on that one. It was kind of nasty. Momo lifted up a dead bear mouth, peering inside of it, swiping at it when it closed. He jumped from Sela's shoulders to Aang's, obviously scared. Katara opened some pot in the middle of the floor and peered into it, when the nastiest smell hit me.

"No way, stewed sea prunes?" She asked.

"help yourself." Bato told her. While Sokka said something about his dad. Sela looked up at me, and I shrugged, not knowing what to do. I wanted to sit down and ask him questions about where hes been and what hes done, but I didn't want to interrupt their reunion. Aang took one sniff of the soup and set it aside, while Momo tried it. I just sat down and stared at the fire, wishing we could laeve. I wasn't paying any attention to the conversation, I just wantd to be done here. I saw Aang put on some giant raccoon hat, and I wanted to laugh, but Bato told him to put it down. I saw Aang sink into a corner, and Sela went to talk to him. I sat next to Sokka, half listening, half asleep.

I had practically fallen asleep when I heard Bato say something about a rendezvous point, and Sokka and Katara could go with him. I opened my eyes in shock. They wouldn't do that, would they? I saw Aang sit up, paying attention to the conversation, while Sela just opened her eyes to look at Aang.

"It's been over two years since we've seen dad.. That would be so incredible!" Sokka exclaimed. "Katara?"

"I do really miss him, it would be great to see Dad."

"It's been far too long, hasn't it?" Bato said. I watched Aang get up and walk out of the room, followed by Sela. I sat up to follow them and make sure he was okay. But that was when Bato really noticed me.

"It would be great but we can't, we have to take Aang to the north pole first. "

"Even if we had time to wait for the message, who knows how far we'll have to travel. We don't have time for a long detour.

"I'm sure your father would understand." Bato told them. "And be proud that his children are helping the avatar. Now, you said your name was Ria?" He asked me.

"Rori." I corrected him. I looked out the door to see Sela run up to Aang and begin walking beside him, grabbing his hand.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" He asked while looking at me. I glanced up at him, really seeing him. The way the fire played on his features was so familiar, I was thrown into a flashback.

_I was holding seven year old Sela in my arms, and I glanced up to see a man pick me up in his arms. In the background, I saw water nation warriors fight fire nation soldiers. The fire made his features dance, and my vision was clouded with tears. But I knew I would always remember the way he looked at me. _

I gasped and almost fainted.

"It was you!" I breathed out. "Your the one that took us to the beach! You left us there!" I almost screamed. I was pretty sure my face paled, then flushed with color.

"Your the girl I picked up? And that is your sister? The one you were here with?" I gasped and stood up, staring at him as he stood to face me.

"Yes! How could you do that? Why did you do that?" I wanted to yell. He stepped over the fire to engulf me in a hug. I hugged him back, even though I sort of wanted to rip his head off.

"What's going on?" Sokka asked. I ignored him, instead focusing my attention on Bato.

"Why didn't you come back? You left us to Aunt Wu, and she was terrible!" He hugged me again, before pulling back to look at me long and hard.

"I never thought I'd see you again! When I left, I was going back to Hakado to see if we should take you with us. But when we got back, you were gone. We looked everywhere, and finally we thought you just got up and hid from us. We had to help our warriors try and save everyone, so we couldn't keep looking. My wife was going to watch over you two." My mouth dropped open. I wished Sela was here, it would be difficult to explain all this to her.

"I never thought I'd see you, either! Aunt Wu told us you were fire nation and were going to kill us. Did you ever see our parents?" I asked while hugging him once more before sitting down.

"I'm sorry. You were the only two survivors from that household. We couldn't find anyone else, and no one asked if we had seen you." I pulled my knees into my chest, wrapping my arms around them.

"You were going to take us to your wife? Why?"

"Because when I picked you up, the first thing I thought about was getting you out of harms way. You held onto me for dear life, and I knew that your parents had not survived. I loved you from the moment I picked you up." I felt a tear slide down my cheek. I couldn't believe this. This was way too far fetched. I wanted to go to sleep and wake up and this be a dream. I shook my head and buried my face in my knees, trying to figure out how I would tell Sela.

_ "It's okay, Rori. Were okay."_ She would have cooed into my ear. I shook with the force of my sobs, not making a noise. If I could have fought off Aunt Wu for one more minute, my whole life would be different. I would have someone I could call Mom and Dad, even if they werent really my parents. I took a deep breath and stood up.

"I'll be back in a few minutes." I told them while wiping my eyes. I hurried out of the room before anyone could stop me. I saw Aang and Sela enter the courtyard on my way out, looking really bouncy. It was weird. I hid around the corner when I saw them, so they wouldn't ask what was wrong. The second they were inside, I saw Sela poke her head out the door. She scanned the courtyard and sighed before heading back in. I walked away from the abbey and to the beach, where I sat thinking, for as long as I could. When I saw the sun start to come up, I left, back to the room. Everyone was sleeping. I layed down on a pelt and kept my eyes open, listening to everyones breathing.

I fell asleep. I don't know how, or when, but I did. The second I woke up, I bolted outside. Aang was feeding Appa, and Sela was brushing his thick fur coat. I saw Aang drop a piece of paper, and then an Sister picked it up and they had a short conversation about it before he bowed to her. A few hours later, and Bato had gathered all of us up to go to the beach. No one mentioned last night, which I was grateful for.

"This ship is sentimental to me." Bato told us as we reached the ship. "It was built by my father." I felt Aang do some airbending, and turned to smile at him. He nervously smiled back, scratching the back of his head. _Weird. . . _

"Is this the boat he took you ice dodging in?" Sokka asked. I had heard of ice dodging before, someone back where Aunt Wu was had told me about it.

"Yep, it's got the scar to prove it!" Bato declared proudly. I ran my hand along its bulky frame, feeling where it must have taken hours of work to chop at with an axe. "How bout you, Sokka? You must have some good stories from the first time you went ice dodging."

"He never got to go. Dad left before he as old enough." Katara told us. Sokka looked up at the ship with a sad look in his eyes.

"Oh, I forgot you were too young." Bato thought out loud.

"What's ice dodging?"Sela asked.

"It's a right of passage for young watertribe members." Bato began. "When you turn fourteen, your dad takes you. You know what? Your about to find out." He told Sokka while putting his hand on Sokka's shoulder.

"Yes!" Sokka exclaimed while jumping up. Katara was smiling at her brother, while I leaned against the boat. "Come on, come on, come on! Let's go!" Sokka yelled at us. Bato laughed and nodded.

"No thanks." I told them while brushing sand off my hands. "You guys go, I'll be your cheerleader!" I laughed when Sokka grabbed my hands and spun me in a circle.

"We are all going!" He told me. I shook my head while smiling.

"I'll end up wrecking the entire boat!"

"Well then we'll have a wrecked boat!" He shot back. I looked down at the ground before nodding.

"Fine. How do we get up?" Bato looked at Katara.

"Can you still waterbend?" She nodded.

"So can Rori." I shrugged when he looked at me.

"Bend it into a water, then Aang can airbend us into it." He told me.

Me and Katara positioned ourselves on other sides of the boat, gently pulling the tides up to carry the boat out to sea. As soon as it was out of the shallows, Aang smacked his glider to the ground, and all of us flew into it. I laughed and Sela giggled, flipping in the air. Aang hopped up, while Bato began to steer.

"Ice dodging is a ceremonial test ofwisdom, bravery, and trust." Bato informed us. I was standing next to the edge watching hte water hit the side, while Aang and Sela were behind me, paying attention. Sokka and Katara were near the main sail, watching the waves ahead. "In our village, it was done by weaving a boat through a pack of ice bergs."

"How are we supposed to ice dodge without ice?" Sokka asked. He looked genuinely happy on the water.

"You will be dodging, those!" He pointed out to a group of craggy rocks, and my stomach tightened. This would be fun. "Sokka, you steer and call the shots. Lead wisely." I could tell he was nervous, but when I gave him a thumbs up, he gave me one right back, a light in his eyes. He ran to the back, where a stick was moving wildly. He grabbed hold of it and steadied it while Bato informed us some more. "Katara and Rori, you secure the main sail. The winds can be brutal, so be brave. Sela and Aang, you secure the main jib. Without your steady hands, we all go down. Your position is about trust." Sela hurried along, while Aang looked to me.

"I know that, why wouldn't I know that?" He looked nervous. "I'm the avatar! I know about trust."

"For this to be done right, I cannot help. You pass or fail without me." He sat down, facing us. My stomach tightened again, but I nodded to him while grabbing hold of the rope.

It was quiet while we approached the rocks, and then Sokka began his commands. "Aang, ease up on the jib. Rori, keep steady!" I nodded and gripped the rope tighter as it tried to slide out of my hands. "Sela, less sail, Katara, give her more room!" I looked back to see sweat already running down Sokka and Sela's face. A sudden wave hit the boat, and water soaked us all, while Sokka tried to keep the boat in a straight line. We were going fast now, and I got nervous as we approached the first rock. "Aang, !$#%!" I looked at Katara in fear.

"What does that even mean?" Aang yelled out. Another wave hit the side of the boat, and my footing slipped. I threw my arms out, shoving another wave away from us. My side of the sail started flapping wildly, and I grabbed it, getting rope burn. I tightened as hard as I could and yanked, trying to get it back down. It was hard, but I finally got it back to place. All of us were hiding our faces in our arms and shoulder as we sailed through a narrow opening in the rocks.

"Good job!" Sokka called. But when I looked to the horizon, we were heading straight for a wall of rocks.

"There's no way through!" I yelled up to him.

"We can make it!" He yelled back, power in his eyes. I saw Bato stand up, and reach out to the wooden pole in between me and Katara.

"Sokka you've already proven yourself. Maybe we should-" Bato called up.

"Aang, I'm gonna need air in that sail!" Sokka interrupted, pointing to the sail I was holding. I gripped the rope tight as I heard him call out the order. "Katara. bend as much water as you can between us and those rocks. Sela, pull your rope as hard as I can when I say to." He paused for a moment before shouting out "NOW!" Aang was throwing so much wind into the sail as I gripped it, it tried to tear me from my spot, I let go with one hand and bended water onto my feet, then froze it, so I wouldn't worry about flying off the boat. We sailed up and over the rocks on a wave Katara made. As soon as we made it over, I dropped the rope and turned the ice into water and collapsed on the ground, laughing. Sokka leaned against the stick, a happy look in his eyes. I calmed down as Sela yanked me back up, and looked at Sokka, he caught my eye and smiled, and I smiled back at him, giving him a tentative wave. When we finally made it back to shore, Bato lined us up in order of height.

"The spirits of water bear witness to these marks." He dipped his finger in dark blue goo, pushing his hand to Sokka forehead. "For Sokka, the mark of the wise. The same mark your father earned." He drew a sideways crescent mark with a dot below it, then stepped to me. "For Rori, the mark of the strong." I felt him draw what felt like a circle with two lines running through the top of it. "You bypassed my expectations by a long shot." I practically glowed, I was so happy. He stepped to Katara then. "For Katara, the mark of the brave." I turned in time to see him draw a moon on her forehead. "Your courage inspires us." He stepped to Sela, who looked nervously back at Bato. "For Sela, the mark of change. You have grown into a beautiful and strong young woman." He drew what looked like three rings and several dots on her forehead, and she looked to me to figure out what he meant. I started to open my mouth, but closed it as Bato moved to Aang. "And for Aang, the mark of the trusted." I saw Aang's eyes widen and look at us. "You are all now honorary members of the water tribe." I smiled and hugged Sokka and Katara.

"I can't." Aang told us. I saw Sela look at him, lightly tapping his arm.

"Of course you can!" Katara told him, but Aang just wiped off the symbol from his forehead.

"No. You can't trust me." He backed up, his feet in the water.

"Aang, what are you talking about?" Katara asked. My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to figure it out.

"A messenger gave this to me, for Bato." He told her, taking the crumpled piece of paper out of his tunic. I saw Sela hang her head, and my eyes widened as I realized what it was. Katara snatched it out of his hand, unraveling it while Sokka pushed past me to look over her shoulder. "You have to understand, I was afraid you-" His voice was rising as I could hear tears rising.

"THIS IS THE MAP TO OUR FATHER! YOU TWO HAD IT THE WHOLE TIME?" Sokka yelled at them. Sela looked up, her hair out of her knot, and tears in her eyes. "HOW COULD YOU?"

"Sokka! Calm down!" I yelled at him while moving to stand in front of Aang and Sela, blocking them from his view. He put his hand on my shoulder, moving me roughly away from them. "STOP!" I yelled at him, moving to shove him back.

"You can go to the North Pole on your own!" He pushed my shoulder away again, and I fell, pulling him down with me, until both of us were wrestling in the sand.

"Let me yell at them!" He yelled in my face while I was on top of him, but in the next second he rolled me on bottom.

"NO!" I yelled right back while using my leg strength to flip us over. I hit him on his shoulder over and over again, but he hit me in the stomach, knocking the breath out of me. I leaned on my legs fr a second, trying to catch my breath, while he stood back up. Fury gather in my eyes as he strode back over to them. I jumped up and onto his back, biting his neck untill I felt blood. He yelled out and grabbed my hair, trying to get me off. I felt someone grab my stomach from behind, pulling me off of him. I struggled in their arms, trying to hurt Sokka.

"I'm going to find Dad!" He yelled at me while snatching the map from Katara and glaring at me. I wanted to rip his stupid ponytail out of his head, but Bato had my arms gripped behind me, so instead I just glared back at him.

"Sokka, I think you should-" Bato started, but Sokka turned back to face Katara.

"Katara, are you with me?" He asked her. She looked from me, to Aang and Sela, who had their eyes cast down, but Sela looked up when she sensed Katara looking, and then to Sokka.

"I'm with you, Sokka." She turned and strode past me, not even looking me in the eyes. I saw Aang let a tear fall, and Bato eleaased me when I gave up fighting, following Sokka and Katara. I looked at them for one second, before running to Katara and pulling her shoulder to face me. She looked scared for a moment, but then I pulled her into me for a hug, and she squeezed me back.

"Take this." I told her quietly. I unhooked my necklace, which was simple, but I'd had it since I could remember. It was just a small ribbon type thing with a stone heart, and a bird carved into it. She nodded and gripped it in her palm, before tying it around her neck. Sokka turned back to look at her, then glanced at me. I glared up at him, mouthing _fuck off _to him. He turned while Katara ran to catch up, and I turned to run back to Sela and Aang. I grabbed both of them in hugs, Sela dripping tears on my shoulder and Aang just squeezing me. After a few minutes, we headed back up to the Abbey to leave. As we got there, Katara and Sokka were gearing up to leave, and Bato came to give me and Sela hugs while Aang sat on Appa, watching.

"I'm sorry we can't get to know each other better, but take these." He handed Sela a tiny bracelet, made of stone and ribbon. He helped her tie it on, and I saw the trinity symbol etched on the front. He stood to show me a necklace, with white marble in a circular shape. I saw the symbol for strength etched into it, and he showed me without words how to open it to reveal a small compartment. I nodded, wondering when he made this. He tied it onto my neck, giving both of us hugs before stepping to Sokka, who was waiting at the gate. I glared at him, before turning to ignore his wandering gaze. I climbed onto Appa, waving goodbye to Katara. Sela climbed to the front with Aang, and I crawled to the front as a Sister stood in front of us.

"Guess I should be moving on." Aang stated while leaning into Appa's fur.

"That would be best." She told him. Aang pulled Appas reins to the gate, following Sokka's trail before stopping.

"I'm an idiot, Momo." I stayed quiet, letting him vent. He then made Appa fly to the beach, stopping us to stare at the ocean for a while. We heard a wolf cry out, and I almost cried at how sad it was.

"That wolf sounded so alone." Sela commented. Aang, just nodded, staring at the ocean.

"Looks like were going alone, guys." Aang told us. I nodded, leaning back into the saddle.

"Avatar!" A lady called up. I sat up to look at a sister, who was talking to Aang. "You must leave!"

"Okay, I get it, everybody wants me gone!" He yelled while tightening Appa's reins.

"A group of people came to the Abbey, looking for you." I leaned over the edge to hear her better.

"Who?" Aang asked, looking down at her.

"A fierce looking warrior women with a horrible monster, and a young man with a scar." She told him.

"Zuko." Aang whispered.

"Zuko?" I asked. I knew a Zuko, from before we lived in the cabin, and before Sela was born, right after Mom found out she was pregnant. I used to be friends with him, but then one day my parents found out the fire lord was going to make me a concubine to him, so we moved. I doubted it was the same Zuko, though.

"The beast was using a scent of a necklace to follow you." The Sister urged.

"A necklace?" He thought to himself before gasping. "Katara!"

The sister backed off, and Sela slid down to Appa's head.

"I have a plan. If the beast was sniffing the necklace to follow Katara, then when it finds something you touched, like the map, it'll come for you. we can meet it back at the Abbey to trick it, and save Katara and Sokka." _Damn, my sister is genius. _I nodded and slid down to Appa's head to hear the plan better.

Just a few moments later, I was hiding behind a column in the courtyard, ready to save Sokka and Katara. Sela was hiding on a rooftop on Appa, ready to knock the beast over. Aang was on his glider in the air, and I was the first to feel the vibrations of the beast. I used the bird call Aang had taught me to do, and he began circling in tighter tighter circles, while Sela would be preparing to knock them over. They burst through the doors, making some Sisters scream and run into houses. I tensed and peeked from around the corner, seeing Sokka and Katara strapped to the back. I wanted to laugh at how immobile they were, but that messed up the plan. I would have to cut them off and drag them to a safe place. I looked at the girl. She looked fierce. The boy behind her had a horrible scar on his eye, and I inadvertently touched my face, wondering how he got it.

"What's it doing?" The boy asked. I smiled as I realized Sela's plan was working. "It's just going in a circle." I looked up at Aang, he was looking down at Katara and Sokka, then at Sela. The beast finally stopped and looked up, just as Aang dive bombed to the ground. The beast stuck out its tongue, trying to eat him or something, and all the people fell off. I instantly ran from my hiding place, skidding on the ground to grab Katara as the fierce lady whipped at the creature. I just dodged her whip, lifting Katara into my arms and dragging her to a wall.

"Aang! Rori!" She called. I slapped my hand over her mouth as the boy looked up at me. He got this angry look on his face and stood, preparing to fire bend.

"Oh boy." I muttered while dropping Katara to block a wave of fire with water I pulled from a well nearby. While the steam masked us, I grabbed Katara again and dragged her to a wall, setting her up. Just as I glanced up, I saw Aang touch the ground, and the beast start running towards him. Appa and Sela yelled out with a laugh as the sent the beast tumbling, and I ran to Sokka, grabbing his arms. He was much heavier than Katara, and I had to readjust my grip a few times before I finally could move him.

"God, Sokka, do you eat bricks for breakfast?" I asked while pulling him next to Katara.

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?" He asked while I leaned him up.

"It means I'm not going to let them kill you just yet." I told him while running back into the battle. I saw the boy walk calmly to Aang, before bending fire at him, which Aang easily blocked with air. I bended some water from the well and threw a water whip at the boy, trying to distract him while Aang tried to knock him out. I had to back up when the moved closer together, and instead I focused on keeping the beast from getting Sela.

"Don't let the tongue touch you! You cant move!" Sokka called. All three of us yelled a got it while I ducked under it, shooting water at its stomach before rolling away. The girl tried to whip at me, but I just grabbed her with water and pulled, dragging her whip away from her. There was an explosion in the middle, where Aang and the boy, who I now guessed was Zuko, had been fighting. Zuko was thrown against one side, and Aang on the other, smacking into a roof. I saw the beast lash its tongue out at Appa, catching his foot. I yelled at the girl while smacking her beast with my water, focusing its attention on me. It shot its tongue out, and I ducked, rolling tot he side and standing back up, throwing a wave of water at it. Appa collapsed to the floor, trying once to get up before collapsing again, Sela smacked his head, urging him up, glancing at me for help. I tried to keep paying attention to the beast, catching its tongue with water and freezing it. It just threw the tongue onto the ground too crack it before roaring and rearing up, making me fall over. All of a sudden, Appa reared into the beast, sending the owner flying. I caught her in a wave of water, throwing her to the other side of the courtyard. I saw the beast jump over my head, and then I realized it was still going for Aang. I did quick thinking while Appa tried to attack it.

"Aang! The water! Dive in!" I screamed while preparing my self for it. He followed my directions, jumping into the water and swimming across, the beast right behind him. As soon as Aang popped up on the other side, I froze the top layer of water, just as the beast tore through it, I followed the water up its legs, freezing its back legs before it stopped in mid air. It fell back on the ground, shattering most of the ice. I saw some roof tiles start to slip from above Katara and Sokka, and I shot water above them to keep most of it from hitting them. I missed some, but I threw all that I had caught towards the boy, who was chasing Aang again. He threw a wave of fire at the tiles, burning them. I saw them head towards a well, and I breathed as deep as I could before pulling the water up. I saw what Aang wanted, Katara's necklace, so I snaked a small river of water from the well and yanked it off his wrist, dropping it inside the well. I waited untill Aang dove inside, and the boy threw fire down into the well, to shoot the water up. It all came out like a geyser, throwing the boy far away from Aang, and Aang landing gracefully in front of the well.

Zuko got up and tried to hit Aang with fire again, but Appa stepped in front of him, blocking his path. The beast shot his tongue out at Appa several times, and I could see Appa trying not to collapse.

"Sela!" I cried, she looked up at me, glancing down at Appa once more before jumping off him and landing beside me. "If I say go, you go, got it?" I told her, gripping her shoulders. She nodded, then turned to face Zuko, throwing fire at him. I copied, throwing icy bits of water at him to pelt his skin. I saw Zuko and the beast corner him, and I jumped to the roof above them. I saw Sokka and Sela knock over a bunch of perfumes, letting Katara do something with the perfume, but I jumped down in front of Aang, smacking the beast's tongue away, then throwing the long train of water at Zuko. He blocked it with fire, making it evaporate, but I caught it before the mist disappeared, bringing it behind him and causing him to fall backwards. The beast lashed its tongue out, and I ducked, rolling out of its way, and then popping back up beside Aang. Perfume washed down in front of us. Me and Aang stood against the wall, unsure of what was going to happen. It sniffed around for a moment before attacking Zuko, and the girl jumped down to keep it from attacking her, but it ended up smacking her. I heard an old man call out "June!" before diving to catch her I froze for a moment while my bran tried to catch up to me. That man looked so familiar. The beast ran around in a circle before finally jumping over a wall.

Me and Aang hugged each other and I ran over to hug Sokka. "That was genius!" I told him. He smiled brightly and hugged me back. "And now your forgiven." I told him. Katara hugged me too, and then Sela, before we stood in a circle, smiling.

"Come on, guys, let's keep heading for the North Pole." Sokka said, I smiled and nodded, looking back to see the old man.

"I'll be right there." I told them. I ran towards the old man, stopping about ten feet from him. "Why do you look so familiar?" I asked him. He turned to face me, and I guessed he wasnt actually hit with the tongue.

"You don't recognize me, Rorianna?" He asked I backed up, shielding myself from him.

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"You do not remember me? You used to love sitting on my lap and listening to my stories with Zuko." I gasped and looked at the boy with the scar.

"Your Zuko?" I asked. He nodded slightly, and I saw someone's shadow behind me.

"You ready to go, Rori?" Sokka asked. I turned to face him, glancing back for a second at Zuko. MY zuko.

"Yeah. Let's go." He took my hand and gently guided me back to the group, who was already in the saddle. I glanced back to see Zuko watching me, and I shook my head as I really remembered his golden eyes. As soon as we got to Appa, I climbed up to the saddle, Sokka, keeping his hands on my waist as I hooked my leg over the edge of the saddle, hauling myself up. He climbed up right behind me, sitting next to Katara, who was in front of me.

A few minutes of silence later, Aang broke it. "So, where do I go?" He asked.

"We're getting you to the North Pole." Katara answered as I smiled.

"Yeah. We've lost too much time as it is." Sokka added.

"Don't you want to see your father?" Aang asked while popping up beside me.

"Of course we do, Aang. But, your our family too. And right now, you need us more." I smiled and nudged Sokka's foot, with mine, making him look up at me. I nudged it again and looked at him in the eyes before looking at the sun setting.

"And we need you." Katara added. Aang smiled brightly before leaning against the seat.

"I wish I could give you a little piece of home, Katara. Somehting to remind you." He trailed off.

"I'll be okay, Aang. I got this beautiful necklace from Rori." I smiled at her, while Sela gasped beside me.

"You gave her the necklace?" She asked. I nodded and squeezed her knee, smiling.

"Still. Just a litte trinket. Maybe something like. . . This?" He smiled proudly and held out the necklace I had helped him get.

"Aang! How'd you get that?" She asked while tying it around her neck. It fit snugly with my necklace, the colors blending in, my necklace dripping a tiny bit below the curve of her neck.

"Zuko asked me to be sure I got it to you! And he asked Rori to make sure I did." I smiled at Katara and nodded, while she threw her arms around Aang's neck.

"Aaaw, thats so sweet of Zuko," she joked. "And Rori, did you be sure I told him thank you?" I nodded and laughed.

"He also wanted me to make sure if Aang didnt hand it right over, to throw him off Appa." I looked at Aang, making a fake _sorry _face at him. "Unfortunately, that wasn't right away. Lokks like your getting kicked off the flying bison." I told him seriously. I laughed along with everyone else, as we rode off to the North Pole.

After a few more jokes about Zuko, we layed back and settled down for sleep. Sela was curled into my side.

"Hey Rori." She asked. I sat up and stroked my hands through her hair, pulling the knots out.

"Mhmm?"

"Where did we live before the cabin?" I tightened when I realized everyone was listening. Katara stiffened, Sokka lifted his head and leaned against the edge of the saddle, and Aang hopped up to the saddle to listen.

"Well, we lived in the fire nation. I remember it was near the palace. I used to have friends in there. You wouldn't rememember, Mom just found out she was pregnant when we left. I remember the place being big, and there was red everywhere. Mommy and Daddy used to have fights about it, at night. She would say that this was no place to raise us, and we needed to leave before it got serious. Daddy would tell her he was trying to make a quiet getaway. One they wouldn't notice. And then one night, they woke me up, and we left. The cabin was in the about twenty miles from the place Aunt Wu lived." Sela shivered, and I hugged her tightly.

"Do you know why they wanted you moved?" Aang asked.

I shook my head, pulling it out of the ponytail. "I never found out for sure. I only remember pieces of it that I heard from the stairs." I paused for a moment. Remembering. A tear slid down my cheek, and I didnt bother wiping it. "I was a water bender. Someone would find out. I was going to be a concubine for my best friend. They didn't want it happening, and then we left two days later. I remember my mother begging me to stop crying when we left the wall, they didn't want me to be heard." Tears were sliding down my face, remember that night in foggy details. My mothers green eyes pleading, filled with tears, my father's golden ones, gently guiding us to the edge.

"Who was your best friend?" Sokka asked quietly.

"It was in the past. I don't know if I'm remebering right. I'm probably wrong. And it doesn't matter anyways. No chance in hell I'm going back." I laughed quietly, petting Momo. "His name was Zuko." I heard Katara gasp along with Sokka and Aang. i just sat quietly, looking down at Momo.

"You were fire nation." Sokka said gravely. I nodded slowly, tears dripping down my face.

"I just want to forget it." I choked out.

"But you were still fire nation." He repeated, louder. I stood up and nodded, stretching. It was dark, and only the light of the moon made things easier to see. "You were fire nation." He repeated standing up too. I looked him in the eyes. There was something dark in them.

"I was."

"You still are." I gasped and looked at him.

"SHUT UP!" I screamed, diving at him. He caught me in his arms, easily grabbing my hands to keep me from punching me. "I'm not!" I protested. "I'm not." I repeated quieter this time.

"No, you just gave me an idea." I stopped struggling, and he wrapped his arms around me, catching me while my knees collapsed. He pulled us down, and I cried into his shoulder, while he rubbed my back. I fell asleep, my head on his shoulder, his arms around me. It wasn't romantic in any way. He was just comforting me, as my brother.


	3. Chapter 3

After having decided we would go to the fire nation festival, we went to a cliff edge to look down at the city.

"You guys stay here." Aang told Appa and Momo. Momo flew up then dive bombed into a bush, while Appa waddled over to the bush and layed down behind it.

"Is it just me or does it look like Appa is pointing to where Momo is?" I asked with a light laugh. Finally getting the past off my shoulders really made me much happier.

"Come on, we need to get disguises." Aang said with an eye roll. Me and Sela didn't need disguises just yet, since we had been traveling with the Avatar less than a week. I did put Sela's hair into a knot at the top of her head, how I used to wear my hair in the fire nation. I pulled half my hair back and secured it with a ponytail, tying the top half into a knot. Sokka pulled on a black cloak, getting the hood to shield his face, like it did Katara's. Aang pulled his tunic over his head, turning around. I laughed at him while he swung his arms, stopping when I realized it was actually a problem..

"It's like your a whole different person." Sokka said while Katara and Sela giggled.

"Let's go!" He waved us down the mountain, still keeping his hood up.

When we made it down to the city, a giant dragon ran in front of us. Sela laughed and touched its side while the others shrunk back.

Everyone around us was wearing masks, so I offered to go to the nearest stall and get some.

"Hurry back!" Sokka called while I disappeared in the crowd. I grabbed the first three I saw, being careful to hide in the crowd so he wouldn't notice I didn't pay. As soon as I got back, I passed them out, Sela tugging on my sleeve.

"Can we get food?" She asked. I shrugged, while Sokka and Aang switched masks. Sokka ran ahead of us, grabbing a bag of the flaming fire flakes off the counter

He immediately burned his tongue, yelling about how hot they were. I laughed and took them from him, dropping a couple in my mouth before passing it to Sela. She copied me, only sticking her tongue out and waving air in her mouth after she swallowed. I didn't tell the others, but I felt so much more at home here. I felt like I could blend in with the crowd, not worrying about anyone else, just enjoy the night with Sela.

"Hey! Look at this!" Aang pointed. We walked to a nearby stall, where a puppet show was going on.

"Don't worry, loyal citizens, no one can surprise the fire lord!" A puppet called out. Another puppet holding a rock popped up beside him, while the little kids were all saying "Look out!" and "Oh no!" A second later, and the fire lord puppet turned and singed the earth nation puppet to the ground, while the kids and spectators cheered. I pulled Sela away from it, instead turning the other way.

"Aang! Where are we going?" Katara asked, Aang was leading us into a large crowd near a stage.

"I don't know, but there's a big crowd, so it must be good." He told us.

"Knowing the fire nation, it's probably an execution." Sokka thought out loud. I glared at him and punched his shoulder, making him trip. "Hey!" He yelled at me. Sela laughed and I just glared. Something about Sokka just made me riled up half the time. We turned our attention to the stage, watching the bender shoot flames over the top of his head.

"Woah." Sela squeaked. I knew she wanted to learn that, but it did look pretty dangerous. I had to admit, it was pretty impressive.

"I've got to learn that trick!" Aang told us excitedly.

The crowd cheered as the bender addressed the crowd. "Thank you! Thank you. For my next trick, I'll need a volunteer from the audience." Immediately, Aang and Sela began jumping up and down, too excited for words.

"What do you think your doing?" Sokka whispered harshly, while steadying the both of them.

"I want to get a better look!" Aang protested.

"It's better that we not attract attention." Katara whispered.

"I want to go up!" Sela whined. I sighed and rolled my eyes, hauling her up on my hip so she'd stop bouncing around. Even though she was eleven, she only weighed about seventy pounds. And she was only about an inch shorter than Aang.

"How about you, little lady?" The man boomed, pointing a dramatic finger at Sela. She immediately smiled and began furiously nodding her head, her hair falling from the knot. She slid down from my hip, racing to th stage.

"Why did you let her go?" Sokka whisper yelled at me.

"Because if I had said no, it would have been suspicious! She would have cried and attracted even more attention!" I whispered back. He sighed and crossed his arms, basically admitting I was right.

I watched the man pull her up on the stage, and she began shaking with excitement. _oh god, I hope she doesn't try to copy his moves while she is up there._

"That could've been me." Aang complained. I elbowed him lightly, keeping my eyes on Sela.

"This next trick is called **Taming the Dragon**! You will be my trapped Princess." He sat her down on a chair, and I started to grow nervous. _What if she yells? Or gets hurt? _ I took a deep breath and let it out, trying to calm my nerves. I saw him tie a ribbon loosely around her, one that stuck out from her pale looking skin. Her smile had faded, and instead I could see her testing the ribbon to see how it would hold up.

I saw him bend fire out in a loud streak, making it look as if it were a dragon. I felt my muscles twitch. _It was fake. It's not real. She's not going to get hurt._

"Don't worry, young maiden! I will tame this fiery beast! He swooped the dragon down in front of her, and I saw Sela lean back in the chair, whether in awe or fear, I couldn't tell. The man bended what looked like a whip of fire, connecting it to the dragon.

"It's too strong! I can't hold it!" He called out.

"We gotta help her!" Aang cried.

"No, we don't want to make a scene!" Sokka held Aang back. I stepped forward, that dragon was getting way too close to _my _Sela.

"The rope! It's breaking!" The man called out.

"Sela!" I yelled when the dragon began careening towards her. I reacted without thinking, and so did Aang. I snapped out a whip of water from the pack on my side and shot it towards the ribbon. Aang jumped on stage in front of Sela and blasted the fire dragon with air, while I shot the rest of the water at the dragon. I felt Katara grab at my hands, trying to keep me from doing anything else, but instead, I concentrated on grabbing the water and pushing together it's molecules so that it became water again, and I whipped it at the man before jumping on stage.

"Hey! You trying to upstage me, kids?" He asked while Aang started doing some dancing move. I stood paralyzed on stage while confetti rained down on us. the water dropped from my grasp as the crowd began booing.

"Hey! That kids the avatar!" Someone yelled. I turned to see Sokka and Katara beside me, Sokka lifting Sela in his arms as if she was a twig. Aang froze, and several guards turned in the audience to face us.

"Time for our big finale!" I shouted.

"Follow me, I can get you out of here!" Someone in black shouted. I saw the gaurds start to rush towards us, so I whipped some water at their feet and froze them from their knees down, making them fall in a heap.

"Go, go, go!" I yelled at them. We ran through a hole in the wall, following the man. He threw what looked like a bomb backwards, and it landed several feet behind us.

"Over there!" More guards yelled as we ran down an alley.

"I'm calling Appa!" Aang yelled. I turned and whipped more water behind us, trying to get more distance between us and the guards. It worked for a moment, they froze while I lifted the water, and I had enough time to freeze the front guards feet to the ground.

"I hope he can really hear that thing this far away!" Sokka yelled.

"This way!" The man called. We turned a sharp corner, leading us into another alley. "Okay, not this way." He muttered when more guards were at the end. He pulled another one of those bombs from his cloak and threw it at the guards while I back tracked, glancing down each alley.

We ran into a dead end, but this one was filled with fireworks. When I turned back, guards were standing at the end of the alley, obviously waiting to see what kind of trick we pulled. All of a sudden there was a grumbling noise while Appa soared into view.

"Appa! Down here!" Aang called. Appa came and landed in front of us, scaring the guards off, and giving us enough time to jump onto his back. When we were up in the air, the man pulled another bomb from his cloak and threw it down towards the ground, landing amongst the fireworks. They caught fire, going off as we got farther away.

"Nice touch setting off the fireworks." Aang told the man while steering Appa. The man pulled his hood down while keeping an eye on the disappearing city.

"You seem to really know your explosives." Sokka commented while taking his own hood off.

"I'm familiar." He told us while turning to face us.

"Your a fire nation soldier!" Sokka retorted.

"Once. My names Chey." Sela slid into me, grabbing my hand. I shook her off. I felt like she needed to get used to me being gone, in case something happened to me. I saw her out of the corner of my eye look up at me, but I stared straight ahead, watching the ma- I mean Chey.

A few minutes later, after we had put some distance between us and the city, we got a fire going and were sitting around it.

"I serve a man. More than a man, really. He's a myth." Chey told us. "He's a legend. But he's real. Jeong Jeong the deserter. He was a fire nation general. Or wait, was he an admiral?" He trailed off, looking into the woods, as if they would whisper the secret to him.

"He was very highly ranked, we get it." Sokka said, obviously annoyed.

"Yeah, way up there! But he couldn't take the madness of it anymore. He was the first person ever to leave the army, and live." My ears perked up at this. Is that why they burned our home down? Trying to kill my father because he left the army? "I'm the second, but you don't get to be a legend for that." He paused for a minute, and I began scratching in the dirt with my finger, wanting to kill this man myself. "Jeong Jeong's a fire bending genius! Some say he's mad! But he's not. He's enlightened." I turned to see Aang's obvious happy face. _Does that kid really want a mad man as his teacher? And what about Sela? Would she want to learn? _ I sighed and looked back at Chey.

"You mean there's a fire bender out here who's not with the fire lord?" Aang asked in one breath. "We've gotta go see him! He can train me!" Aang stood up, along with Sela.

"I want to learn too!" She called out. I looked up at her, and she looked at Aang, who nodded, then me. I shrugged, knowing it was going to happen whether I liked it or not.

"We're not going to go find some crazy fire bender!" Sokka immediately yelled.

"He's not crazy!" Chey shouted back, standing up. "He's a genius!" He started gesturing like it was obvious, and we were all dumb kids who couldn't understand what he was saying. "And he's the perfect person to train the avatar. That's why I followed you into the festival."

"Woah, woah, woah." I interrupted, standing up. "You followed us into the festival?"

"I had to get to the avatar!" He yelled at me. I backed up, putting my arms up to surrender.

"Look, thanks for the help, but were leaving for the North Pole in the morning." Sokka stated.

"Sokka, this could be mine and Sela's only chance to meet a fire bending master, who would actually be willing to teach us." Aang whined.

"It can't be that hard to just talk to him." Katara supplied while standing beside me.

"Thats what you said about going to the festival!" Sokka cried. I put my hand on his shoulder to make him quiet down, and so that I could take over on this disagreement. "Why doesn't anyone ever listen me?" He asked exasperatedly. I shoved him lightly backwards so I could face all three of them. Sokka obeyed me, turning to walk to the forest, when a spear was shoved in his face. One was suddenly on my neck, and I saw some near Sela and Aang and Katara.

"Don't. Move." Some guy in a tiki hut hat thing said menacingly. I froze, putting my hands up.

They forced us to walk in a line, following a fat guy and Chey.

"Jeong Jeong told you not to look for avatar!" The fat guy yelled.

"Hold it." I said, poking the fat guy. "You know these guys?" I asked Chey.

"Oh yeah. Ling's an old buddy. Right, Ling ye?" Chey said sarcastically. The fat guy shoved his back with a spear.

"Shut up. Keep moving." The fat guy whos name was Ling told Chey. Momo flew in front of us, with me leading, Aang behind me, Sokka behind Aang, Sela behind Sokka, and then Katara last. We stopped a little ways from a river, while Ling poked Chey. "Go on, he sees you only."

"That's okay, we can talk later." Chey told Ling.

"That's where Jeong Jeong is? I need to talk to him right away." Aang told Ling while hurrying forward.

"No," Ling dropped his spear in front of Aang, preventing him from going forward. "You wait there. Go, now!" He yelled to Chey, shoving him forward. Chey stumbled down the hill, glancing back at us.

"Don't worry! Everything will be fine." He called out as he got farther down. Ling led us into a small hut, where we were given a place to sleep.

I layed down on a mat near Sokka, with Sela on my other side. Katara was next to Sela, with Aang on the other end, nearest to the door. Ling built us a fire and told us to sleep before he left.

None of us said a word as we laid down. I stared at the fire, wishing it was closer, since it was freezing.

"Are you cold?" Sokka asked me.

"Just a bit. Nothing I can't handle." He shrugged off his cloak, passing it to me.

"Here, I was getting hot anyways." He told me, I took it in my hands and nodded, thanking him. He nodded back and laid down, me copying. _His cloak IS warm. _I thought as I snuggled into it. It smelled like smoke and sweat, but not the bad kind of sweat. The kind you can only smell when your right up against someone, and it's strangely sweet and intoxicating.

The next day, I sat on a rock next to Sokka, dangling my feet over the edge while watching Aang and Sela begin practicing fire bending. Sometime during the night, Aang and Sela had gotten up to go and convince him to teach them. Katara was standing nearby, practicing her water bending. I would have gone and practiced with her, but instead I decided on relaxing and soaking up some sun, listening to the river.

"Look! Even that oaf knows to concentrate on what he's doing!" Jeong jeong yelled.

"Hey!" Sokka cried out. I laughed and leaned back, feeling the sun hit my skin and warm it. The black made me hotter, but I definitely preferred heat to cold. I saw Katara make a ball of water and copied her, raising it above my head and twirling it, forming it into different shapes above me.

"So when do we get to make some fire?" Sela asked.

"Concentrate!" Jeong Jeong yelled at them. Me, Katara, and Sokka laughed, stopping when Aang and Sela turned to look at us.

"He's going to have a hard time getting them to shut up." I told Sokka and Katara. All of us had decided on just relaxing for the day while Sela and Aang worked on their bending.

"Aang is never going to be quiet. Sela is probably going to throw a temper if he doesn't show her how to make dragons out of fire." Sokka laughed. Me and Katara laughed along with him, relaxing on the beach.

"How much longer do you think we are going to stay?" I asked while moving dirt around with my finger.

"Hopefully not much longer. We need to keep heading to the North Pole." Sokka told me. I nodded, looking up at the sun.

"I don't think I can stand another day of doing nothing." Katara whined. I didn't blame her. Sitting and just breathing was never my thing. Maybe only air nomads can do it.

"Want to play in the river?" I asked. They nodded, and I pulled of my shirt and skirt to reveal a tight black brassier, and some tight black woven shorts. Katara pulled her dress off, and she had a white bandeau wrapped around her body. Sokka stripped to his shorts, and all of us ran into the water, splashing and laughing. I felt Sokka grab me around my stomach, using me as a human shield. I screamed and tried to get out of his grip, but he tightened it when Katara began a steady stream of water at us. I laughed and bended it up and then behind me, twirling in Sokka's arms so I could pull it back at his back. He yelled when the icy water hit his back, twisting us and letting me go.

I dove underwater and used my bending to push away from him, giving myself a little bubble of air under water so i could keep my eyes open and breathing. I waited a moment until I pushed off the bottom and rammed into Sokka's legs, knocking him down and on top of me. I struggled out from under him, kicking to pop up beside Katara. She squealed when I popped up on a blast of water and shot her down with it, she was totally surprised. I laughed and fell from my six foot perch, diving into the water.

"Hey! This is no fair! Two water benders against one non bender! No fair!" I laughed at Sokka, bending a column of water at him. I felt water push me from my place, and I let go of the water, falling into the water. I swam back to the surface, just as Sokka tackled me back under. We wrestled under water for a few moments before coming back up for air, to see that Katara was heading for dry land.

"Do you give up?" I asked her while standing in shallow water.

"Yeah, my stomach got hungry, and I want some food." She yelled out to me.

"You sound like Sokka!" I yelled back at her, she laughed as Sokka tackled me back into the water, and another few minutes of wrestling later, we headed back to the beach and layed in the sun to dry off.

"Hey Rori." Sokka looked at me on his side, so I copied him.

"Mhmm?" I opened my eyes to watch him, noticing he was avoiding looking at my eyes.

"How come your wearing all black?" He blushed when he asked, and I laughed.

"I don't know, it's just what fit." We were quiet for the next few minutes, and Katara got up to change.

"It looks good on you." I blushed and looked down. This was just Sokka. My brother-type-thing. I heard Aang and Sela come crashing through the woods, so I slipped my clothes back on, Sokka doing the same. Instead of hanging around, we headed to the fire to finish drying off. I could water bend, but it was nice to spend time with Sokka without fighting. After sitting near the fire and having a long staring contest, I heard Katara scream, and then Aang profusely apologize. I jumped up, running outside and down to the river, where Sela and Aang were standing on the shore, next to Katara, who was bent down and crying over her hand. I sprinted down the hill, pushing the both of them away and gently pulling Katara towards me.

"Katara, whats wrong?" Sokka asked, sliding onto his knees beside me. "What'd you do?" He yelled at Aang.

"It was an accident! I didn't mean to!" Aang cried. I saw Sela's eyes watering, and I pulled her down to me. She showed her arms to me, the skin burnt and blistered.

"Oh my god." I whispered. Sela burst into tears on me, and I pulled her into my open arms.

"Katara, Sela I'm so sorry!" Aang cried. "It was an a-uhh!"

I turned to see Sokka tackle Aang tot he ground. "I told you. You shouldn't mess around with this! Look what you did!" He had Aang facedown on the grass.

"Sokka! Stop! He knows!" I shouted.

"You burned my sister! And you burned Sela, too!" He shouted again. Sokka finally rolled off Aang, and I turned to face him, to see his eyes watering. Katara jumped up, still crying, and began to run down the river. Sela jumped up and followed before I could stop her.

"You burned my sister!" Sokka yelled while standing up. I stood up to and put my hand on his arm, trying to calm him down. "You burned Sela! This is all your fault!" He pointed to Jeong Jeong, who had just walked over.

"Ah no, no pack your things, you must leave immediately!" Jeong Jeong told us. Aang rolled over to face Sokka and me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't-" Sokka began pulling me back towards camp by my hand, but I dropped his and turned back to Aang. "I'm sorry!" He cried at me.

I took in a deep breath so I wouldn't yell at him, but I closed my eyes and nodded, sitting myself down beside him. I saw Jeong Jeong follow the trail where Katara had run up before I finally turned to Aang.

"I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry!" He cried at me while I pulled him into my arms.

"I know, I know." I told him. I felt him squeeze himself against me, trying to let me know how sorry he was. He didn't let go, just holding onto me.

"Why aren't you going after Sela and Katara? Or even Sokka?" He asked.

"Because Sokka can take care of getting everything together himself. And I know Katara and Sela are old enough to handle themselves without me." I whispered to him while he rubbed his face into my neck. I wondered what it would be like for him to one day be a semi-normal kid, and then to wake up a hundred years later, knowing his parents were gone. I would definitely cry. If I didn't have my mother when I scraped my knee or burnt my hand, I would be emotionally scarred for life.

"Why did you forgive me so fast?" He asked after another few quiet moments.

"Because I know it was an accident." I told him. He nodded, and we stood up. I ran without looking back to where I had seen Sokka running towards, catching him just as he threw stuff onto Appa.

"You stayed with Aang." Sokka stated without even turning around.

"Yes, I did. Do you have a problem with that?" I asked while putting my hands on my hips.

"YES!" He whipped around to face me. "You chose him over your own sister!" He yelled at me.

"Because I know she can handle it with Katara! I trust the both of them!" I yelled back.

"But you chose to comfort Aang over Sela, who was physically hurt!" He retorted.

"I've kept Sela from leading a harmful life! I've sheltered her as long as I can remember! She needs to learn some pain! If I die tomorrow, I want her to be able to move on without me!" I yelled at him, quieting to a whisper as I finished, realizing what I just said was true.

"Your not going to die tomorrow!" Sokka yelled. I groaned and ran my hands through my loose hair.

"How do you know? Were not exactly on a journey to safe and happy land! I doubt Sela even remembers her own dad! You at least have that! Every day, it gets harder and harder to remember what shade my own fathers eyes were!" I yelled, tears running down my face.

Sokka stopped yelling, and instead, we both just faced each other, trying to catch our breath. A moment later, Sela and Katara ran down the trail between us.

"Katara! Sela! Are you okay?" He asked while I wiped at my face, trying to hide the fact I had cried.

"Yes, we're fine. Where's Aang?" Katara asked. I pointed down the trail, and she raced past me, Sela stopping in front of me. I faced her for a moment, and she showed me her arms. It was like they had never been burnt. I dropped to my knees and hugged her against me, closing my eyes against her hair. breathing in the smell of flowers.

"I'm fine, Ria." I was surprised when she called me Ria, she hadn't used that since she was at least five. "Katara fixed me." I let out a strangled laugh and rubbed her back tightly, letting go after a minute to stand up. Katara joined us another minute later, telling us that Aang had gone to help Jeong Jeong, and we needed to meet him by river.

All of us climbed onto Appa, ready to leave. We stood next to the river for a few minutes until Aang popped out of the water.

"Have a nice walk home!" He called down river.

"Aang, come on, let's go!" Sokka shouted. Aang complied and jumped onto Appa, immediately getting Appa to fly.

"What happened to Jeong Jeong?" He asked.

"He disappeared." Sokka told him. "They all did." We looked down to see that the tiny village where several people had been before, was completely vacated. After a few minutes of heading North, Aang sat in the saddle with us, in a circle.

"Aang, your burned." Katara said calmly. Sela smiled, looking out at the sky. "Let me help you." She scooted closer to him and bended some water out of her bag, covering her hand with it before placing it over the burn. She breathed deeply, pulling her hand away and letting the water circle his arm before dropping it. When it dripped to the floor, I was surprised to see the burn gone. As in, not even a scar.

"Wow, that's good water!" Aang joked.

"When did you learn to do that?" I asked.

"I guess I always knew." She answered.

"Oh, well then thanks for all the first aid over the years!" Sokka yelled, leaning against the edge of the saddle. I smiled and looked down at my sandals. He began listing times he had gotten hurt while I stretched my legs and relaxed against the leather of the saddle. I definitely felt more at home than I had originally thought with Sokka complaining and this very leather saddle than at the fire nation festival. A girl could definitely get used to his dry wit.


	4. Chapter 4

We were sitting around a fire with some travelers, taking a break from flying. Sela was sitting on the ground in front of me so I could brush through her hair, with Katara next to her, and Sokka beside me, with Aang on the other side of him. The man telling the story had obviously drank too much cactus juice, seeing as he was talking about flying parrots being flying men laughing about gravity. I saw Aang was actually amused with the story, though.

"Aren't air bender stories the best?" Aang asked while turning to face us.

"Was it realistic?" Katara asked in a bored voice. "Is that how it really was?"

"I laugh at gravity all the time!" Aang laughed. "Gravity. . " He laughed again.

"Jingle jingle!" The story tellersang as he shoved a hat in front of us. I saw Sokka reach in his pockets before pulling out a dead bug and a worm.

"Sorry." He apologized.

"Cheapskates!" He yelled at us while heading back to his little area.

I saw Aang get up, Momo following close behind.

"Hey, thanks for the story!" He told the man.

"Tell it to the cap, boy." The man shoved the hat behind him, and a fewcoins fell out. I saw Momo grab at them. _I guess even the animals know how bad off we are. _I thought with a smirk written on my face. Aang came back to us, a determind look on his face.

"That man just said his grandpappy saw the airbenders last week. We are going to the Northern Air Temple." He told us while grabbing his sleeping bag and throwing it on Appa. I sighed and threw mine up too, knowing he wanted us to leave right away. A few short minutes later and we were up in the air, flying over the clouds.

"It's going to be a few hours untill we get there, so go ahead and rest." Aang shouted over the wind. I complied, throwing on my thick jacket before I cuddled into Sokka's side. I didn't do it because I liked him, I just did it because he was the warmest. He had told me he didn't care, earlier, as long as I didn't care about him snoring. I had laughed, telling him I was such a heavy sleeper I didn't even know he snored.

"Aang, are you sure you don't want me to steer while you sleep?" I called up to him, I had already offered at least seven times, but he kept declining.

"I'm positive! Just go to sleep, Rori." I nodded, leaning down into Sokka's shoulder, my eyes already closing.

When I woke up, the first thing I realized was that it was freezing cold. Sokka was still asleep beside me, not even shivering, where as I was shivering like we were already at the North Pole. I saw Sela sleeping near the front of the saddle, Katara beside her, and I decided we should all be ready, especially since Aang was sleeping on Appa's head.

"Hey, Aang. Wake up." I pushed his shoulder, and he glanced up at me before his eyes widened and he started shivering.

"I'm awake." He told me while pulling a blanket I passed him over his shoulders. "Hey were almost to the Northern Air Temple!" Aang called back, waking everyone up. "This is where they had the Air Bison Polo championships." He said excitedly.

"Do you think we'll really find air benders?" Sela asked.

"Do you want me to be like you or totally honest?" Sokka asked. I elbowed him while Sela easily retorted.

"Are you saying I'm a liar?" She asked while crawling back to Sokka.

"I'm saying your an optimist." He easily said. I turned and saw him carving something into wood. It looked like a beaver. "Same thing basically."

"Hey guys! Look at this!" Aang shouted. I looked up to see a giant tower, with PEOPLE flying around it! I saw Sela beside me, smiling from ear to ear.

Katara gasped and looked up at the big place. "There really are airbenders!" She yelled excitedly.

But Aang didn't answer her. He didn't even smile back at us. That was when I knew something was off. "No they're not." He answered, leaning back into Appa's fur.

"What do you mean theyre not? Those guys are flying!" Sokka shouted to Aang.

"Gliding maybe, but not flying." Aang answered. "You can tell by the way they move. Theyre NOT airbending. Those people have no spirit." It got quiet as we saw one of the "gliders" come closer. We ducked down as he soared over our heads, laughing.

"I don't know, Aang. That guy seemed pretty spirited." Katara told him. I saw now that the guy was sitting in some sort of a wheelchair contraption, still laughing over us. The kid swooped down in front of us, stopping in front of Aang, and soared up a second later, tempting Aang to go play. He did, using his glider as we stood in the saddle and watched. Another kid with gliders swooped in front of Appa, making him rear back, causing all of us to fall on the back.

"We better find some solid ground before it finds us!" Sokka yelled while helping me to my feet. I nodded and thanked him, running across the saddle and jumping down to take the reins. I hurried to lead him down to an open space, where several kids were cheering on the kid who had tried to run us over, Teo. We jumped down and I pet Appa while Sokka stood beside me, calming Appa down.

I looked up to see a giant smoke cloud of an Aang look alike, pouting. I nudged Sokka, and he looked up to laugh. Katara and Sela were completely absorbed in the air show. Another second later, and Aang landed in frot of us, the boy in the wheelchair skidding to a stop nearby. A group of people immersed him, taking apart the glider on top.

He wheeled over to us with his goggles up. "Hey, you're a real airbender!" The kid exclaimed. "You must be the avatar! That's amazing! I-I've heard stories about you!" He said excitedly. I liked the way his brown eyes looked at Aang, full of admiration and desire.

"Thanks," Aang replied while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Wow! This glider chair is incredible!" Sokka yelled, hurrying over to look at the glider and wheelchair.

"You think this is good, wait untill you see the other stuff my dad designed." Teo told him, wheeling himself towards a large entrance. We followed him in, and the second we got in far enough, I saw the way everything used steam to move. It was amazing! I loved it.

"This is awesome!" I let out, a tiny squeak following.

"Yeah, my dad is the mastermind behind this whole place." Teo told me. I saw Sokka run forward to look at things, and I followed him, glancing back to see Aang looking apprehensively around. "Everything is powered by hot air. It even pumps hot air outside to give us a lift while were gliding."

"This place is unbelieveable." Aang said. he sounded, dissapointed.

"Yeah, it's great isn't it?" Teo asked while looking up.

"No." Aang told him quietly. "Just unbelievable."

"Aang used to come here a long time ago." Katara explained. "I think he's a little shocked its so. . .different!" I turned back around to look at all the pipes running through.

"So better!" Sokka called out. I laughed and saw Sela walk to one of the pipees, running her hand over it.

"This place is amazing." I told Sokka.

"It really is." He replied while looking up at the ceiling.

A few minutes later and Teo was leading us to a part of the temple that hadn't been messed with. It was like a courtyard with several monk statues standing in a circle.

"At least one of the parts of the temple is the same." Aang told us, obviuolsy birghtening up.

"Look out!" Someone called. All of a sudden, there was a stone ball crashing through the wall and the stone monk we had just been looking at. I was coughing and holding onto Sela's shoulder, who was standing next to Teo. A man walked through the rbble with crazy hair and several others behind him.

"What the doodle? Don't you know to stay away from construction sites?" He asked while pointing a finger at us. "We have to make room for the bath house."

"Do you know what you did?" Aang yelled at the man, infuriated. "You just destroyed something sacred! For a stupid bath house!"

"Well people around here are startig to stink." The man replied, not even phased.

"This whole place stinks!" Aang yelled, jumping up and smacking wind against the contraption that had knocked through the wall. It was quiet for a moment as the thing fell down the cliffside. "This is a sacred place." Aang lectured. "I've seen it when the monks were here, what it's supposed to be like."

"The monks? But your twelve!" he man thought for a moment while Teo rolled up to him.

"Da-ad. It's the avatar. He used to come here a hundred years ago." Teo explained.

"What are you doing? Who said you could be here?" Aang asked while stepping up to the old man.

"Hmm. . Doing here. . .A long time ago. . But not a hundred years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood." The man explained. "My infant son, Teo, was badly hurt and lost his mother." He stopped to sniffle before looking back up. "I needed somewhere to build and I stumbled upon this place. Pictures of flying people everywhere! It was unbelievable!" He told us, painting a picture in our heads. "But empty. Nobody home. I cam across these fan like contraptions!

"Our gliders." Aang supplied.

"Yes! little, light, flying machines. They gave me a new idea, build a new life for my son in the air! Then everyone would be on equal ground!" He excitedly told us. "So to speak, were just in the process of improving what's already here. And after all, isn't that what nature alreadys does?" His story made me sad, and I wiped my eyes, Katara and Sela copying me, while Sokka looked up at the sky.

"Nature know where to stop." Aang added.

"I suppose that's true." The man nodded. "Unfortunately, progress has a way of getting ahead of us. Look at the tme!" The man looked to a candle with several notches stacked on top of each other. "Come, the pulley system must be oiled before dark."

"Wait." Sokka interrupted, going to stand beside the candles. "How can you tell the time from that thing? The notches all look the same." The man went to stand beside him, putting his hand on Sokka's shoulder.

"The candle will tell us. Watch." He bent down to eye level wiht the candle, Sokka copying. A few seconds after and the candle popped four times.

"You put spark powder in the candle!" Sokka said excitedly.

"Four sparkles. So its exactly four hours past midday." I nodded my head to him. This man did stuff that was so obviously brilliant. "Or as I call it, four o' candle!" Sokka began laughing loudly, and I just twisted my head to the ide. Weird sense of humor. "If you like that, wait till you see my finger safe knife sharpener! Only took three tries to get it right!" The man boomed. I laughed lightly, he did have three wooden fingers that he tossed at Sokka, who screamed. I laughed harder and ran to catch up to the man, wanting to see what else he came up with. Sela stayed with Aang and Teo and Katara, so i waved a bye to her before hurrying off.

He led me and Sokka down a dark corridor with luminescent lamps.

"These lanterns are terrible! I can't see!" Sokka cried while trying to open it. I shoved past him, letting my eyes adjust to the light. "Why would you want to use fireflies for light?" I looked down into his lamp to see a firefly fly out above us.

"Hey!" The man called. "Close that up! They'll get loose!" Sokka closed the container while the man explained. "Fireflies are a non flammable source." He led us down some stairs, then told us to cover our nose and hold our breath. I nodded and did that, looking at Sokka to see if he was doing it, too. He was, and then the man opened a flap on a wooden door that was framed with what looked like cotton. We peered through to see an empty room.

"Okayy. . .So you brought us down here to show us an empty room?" I asked.

"It's not empty." He replied cleverly. "It's filled to the brim with natural gas." He closed the flap, and we stepped back. "Came across it my first time here. Unfortunately, I was carrying a torch at the time. Nearly blew myself and the whole place ven more sky high! Thought my eyebrows would never grow back. Anyways, there is a vital problem that needs fixing. From time to time, we have gas leaks." He and Sokka started touching the cotton and squishng it, while I stood back, unsure of what to do. "And they are nearly impossible to find."

"So this place is an explosion waiting to happen." Sokka realized. My eyes widened as I realized what he said was true.

"Yes, untill I figure out how to find something I can't see, hear, smell, or touch." We stayed down a few more minutes, thinking, before heading up to his workshop. There were hundreds of rolls of paper folded up and in shelves. I turned my back for one second to har Sokka pull something out, and stuff came falling.

"I said don't touch anything! Oh don't worry, that experiments old, and that egg was part of last weekd lunch." I bent down to help them pick up the scattered papers, searching for the egg.

"Gross!" I yelled. "That egg stinks!"

"Quick! Find that egg!" He yelled, dropping everything to find the smell. _Find the smell. . FIND THE SMELL! _

"THAT'S IT!" I yelled, standing up and jumping up and down. "Find the smell!"

"Thats what were doing, finding the smell?" Sokka told me as a question.

"No, FIND THE SMELL! Find it! Find the gas leak!" The man stood up as he realized what I was saying. Sokka stood up as he realized what I was saying, too.

"If we put a whole mess of eggs in the cellar where the gas is-" Sokka realized.

"Then you just have to smell to know where it's comig from!" I told them.

"You can plug up the hole where the gas is escaping!" The man finished.

"Your a genius!" Both of them yelled before squishing me in a hug.

"Oh, I knoww. . " I trailed off, a giant smile on my face. A bell rang beside us, and the man turned to it.

"Something wrong. I've got to go." He told us while running to the door. Sokka and I followed him as fast as we could, but that old man could run!

We rounded a corner, and there was Aang and them, standing in front of a room with a giant fire nation balloon.

"You don't understand!" The man cried.

"Your making weapons for the fire nation!" Aang yelled at him, pointing his finger. I jumped to Sokka's side, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards Aang.

"You make weapons for the fire nation?" Sokka yelled at him. I saw he had a sad look on his face, like he had gotten caught doing something. Which, he was.

"Explain all this! NOW!" Teo yelled at him. SO he didn't know his father had made this. I put together the pieces in my head.

"It was about a year after we moved here. Fire Nation soldiers found our setlement." He explained. "You were too young to remember this, Teo. They were going to destroy everything, burn it to the ground. I begged them, pleaded with them to spare us! They asked what I had to offer. I offered my services. You must understand! I did this for you!" He pleaded to Teo, who had tears in his eyes. The man opened his arms to Teo, but Teo turned his whelchair to face the other way. The man left, and we were standing around. I saw Sela drop to her knees to look Teo in the eyes, and she whispered to him for a moment before he hugged her tightly.

"I can't believe he was working for the fire nation." Sokka whispered in my ear. I shook my head, not believing any of this. He saw a tear drop, and hugged me close, letting me wrap my arms around him and wiping my face in his jacket. It only lsated a second because Aang wanted to go to his work room with Teo to see what they could do to stop the fire nation.

"This is bad. Very bad." Sokka told us, exasperated.

"Aang, what are we gonna do? how are we going to keep them all away?" Katara asked. Sela was squatting next to Teo, holding his hand lightly.

"I'll tell you how. We have something they don't have, airpower." He pointed to the air, where several people were still on their gliders. "We control the sky. That's something the fire nation can't do. We can win."

"I want to help." Teo's dad told us while walking up.

"Good. We'll need it." Aang told him. I was surprised to hear him forgive so quickly, but I guess we did need his help.

"We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka." Teo's dad told us while everyone was huddled in his room. "This boy is a genius!"

"Thank you! Your a genius!" He poked Teo's dad and smiled bashfully.

"Thank you!" His dad said again.

"See, the problem with the air balloon was you could get it going, but once you did, it just kept going." Sokka demonstrated, placing a burning candle under a paper balloon and making it hit the ceiling. "You could put a hole in the top, but then all the hot air would escape. So the question became, How do you keep a lid on hot air?" I heard Katara say something, and her, Teo, Sela, and Aang laughed. I rolled my eyes and kept watching Sokka. "The answer is a lid! If you open the lid when you have too much hot air, you control the war balloon."

"That's actually pretty smart." Katara appraised.

Sokka then began to explain our battle plan, gesturing excitedly.

Less than an hour later, we were all waiting where we had first landed, waiting for the fire nation battle ships to appear.

"Their coming!" A little girl screamed.

"Are we ready?" Sela asked while I tied her hair into a knot.

"Yes, but where's Sokka with the war balloon?" Katara asked. Aang jumped off of Appa and spread his glider.

"We'll have to start without it." Aang shouted over the crowds of people.

"Everyone, get in place!" I yelled. about twenty people got into their place on the runway, and I saw Sela give Teo a hug and kiss on the cheek before backing to the side. I gave Aang a hug good luck, and then they were off, running and jumping off the edge. Katara pushed Teo to the edge before his glider caught flight and soared, and I saw Sela follow him, jumping fearlessly off the edge. I smiled and ran to Katara, asking if she was ready.

"As I'll ever be." I nodded and she ran to jump on Appa's back. I waved good luck as she steered Appa over the edge, waiting for people who needed refills. As soon as the first people swooped over her, I saw chains try to grab at the mountain top. I yelled out and turned the area they were grabbing at to water, so it would slip and fall back down. There were too many, and wihtout Katara's help, I started to get overwhelmed. I saw fire nation tanks come over the edge and begin heading towards the home. I hurried to run to the side, jumping on the ledge and melting the snow they were on. It did nothing, they just kept moving, so I froze it. They stopped for a moment, but then the spikes borke through the ice and kept moving. I tried swooping water over one of them, dragging it like a tide over the edge.

I got it to the very end before they shot out an arrow, and it shot past my wall of water to the ice in front of it. It didn't get any purchase, and instead, slid over the edge and disappeared below. The people behind me cheered, but the other tanks were too far up be able to reach the edge again. I was already sweating from the workout. I saw Aang stop and jump in front of them, knocking them back with air. But the second they stopped flipping, the actual cage they were inside rolled over, and they continued on. I saw Katara land in fornt of them, freezing the area in front of one with water and knocking its wheels off. I saw what she was doing, and I jumped off the wall to run to her. I used the snow to give me a farther push, and then I had a brillliant idea. I turned the snow around me to water, then jumped up and froze a small piece of it so I could surf to where they were. As I surfed, I turned the water behind me to ice, knocking over several of the tanks before I jumped down from my perch and froze a whole wave in front of us, to prevent them from reaching us for only a few seconds.

"Any ideas?" I asked Katara while trying to reach behind the wave and freeze more snow and water.

Just then, appa landed in front of, and we ran on his back to the saddle so he could take off again. We landed on the runway, where Teo told us we were out of bombs.

"Come on, Sokka. Where's that war balloon?" I turned to see a giant red war balloon float up from beside us.I cheered along with Katara and Sela, watching as they dropped hundreds of galloons of goo on top of the fire soldiers. The goo didn't stop the tanks from going forward, and I began to fret as they kept moving. I saw Sokka knock the engine over the edge, and it fell into a hole. A second later, and explosions rocked the entire place. I backed from the edge as smoke leaked up, Aang and Sela copying me. When the smoke cheered, I saw that the tanks were gone. I cheered, laughing and standing up. The soldiers were retreating, but I stopeed as soon as I saw Sokka's warship balloon going down.

Aang jumped off the edge, using his glider to soar down. I couldn't see anything as he went down, but then he reappeared with Sokka and Teo's dad holding onto a rope. As soon as they made it back to safe ground, I ran to hug Sokka.

"Your a genius!" I kept repeating. He laughed and wound his aarms around me, nuzzling his nose into my hair. He picked me up and spun me around, amking me feel like a five year old while I laughed. Finally, we stood around Aang, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"I realized I was wrong, before. It's like the hermit crab. Maybe you weren't born here, but you found this empty shell and made it your home." Sokka kept his hand around my waist while Aang kept talking. "And now, you protect each other."

"That means a lot, coming from you." Teo told Aang while his dad put an arm around the wheel chair.

"Aang, you were right. As long as we have the sky, we'll have the fire nation on the run!" Sokka shouted, pointing to the sky. I smiled and snuggled into his side, relishing its warmth as the crowds cheered.

"Now, I'm afraid that we have to leave." Katara told Teo and his dad. Sela was standing beside Teo, and I saw him look up at her before she shook her head no, then looked up at me.

"Ria, I need to talk to you." She looked at me before nodding her head towards the inside, so I shrugged and followed her inside.

When we were inside, she turned to face me.

"Ria, I'm sick of moving around. I love it here! I love it with Teo, and his dad, and the people, and the air!" I laughed as she tried to gesture around us.

"I love it here, but we gotta go, Sokka and them are waiting." I grabbed her arm to pull her away, but she yanked her arm back. I turned to look at her questioningly.

"I'm staying." I laughed and turned back to face her.

"No your not. Now come on, I'm really tired." I tried to grab her arm again, but she pulled it away before I could grab it.

"Your not my mother!" She yelled in my face. I got angry at this, and I felt my hands heating up.

"I'm the closest thing you got! And I make the decisions!" I shouted right back.

"I don't want you to be! Why can't you just be my sister?"

"Because your my LITTLE sister! I'm supposed to take care of you! I'm not going to leave you behind!" Our shouting had attracted a small crowd of Teo, Aang, Sokka, Katara, adn Teo's dad.

"I'm not leaving! I like it here! Teo's dad already said I could!" She screamed at me.

"You can't! Your not allowed to! I'm saying no!" I screamed in her face. She backed up, tears in her eyes, before sprinting off down a hall. I turned to face Teo's dad. "YOUR THE ONE THATS MAKING HER ACT LIKE THIS!" I shouted. I threw my hands at him, not really trying to do anything, just mad and needing to burn the energy off. But when I flung my arms toward him, flames shot out and streaked towards him. My hands were glowing, and I stared at them in shock while I watched Aang threw a blast of air at the fire. I saw Teo push his wheelchair quickly towards where Sela had run off. I looked up to see Sokka a few feet in front of me, shock written all over his face. I didn't even think, I just ran past him, shoving past Aang and out of the courtyard, jumping over the wall to land in the snow. I ran as hard as I could, trying to make it as far away as I could. I finally collapsed in the snow, my hands catching the fall. Snow sizzled and melted under them. I threw my arms up to the sky, trying to prove I was a water bender, but instead, another burst of flames shot out. I yelled out in fear, falling backwards into the snow. As the tears streaked down my face, I felt my hands grow cold, and I brought them to my face, covering it and sobbing into the snow. _What the hell is going on with me?_ I asked myself. I stopped sobbing, just laying in the snow without a jacket, tears streaking and freezing on my face.

"Rori!" I heard someone shout. I don't know how long I was there, but I had stopped shivering about ten minutes ago, just watching the sun rise over the sky. My arms were out by my sides, crunching andfeeling the snow turn to water in my cold hands. I saw a glider fly over me, and circle, before swooping down. I saw it was Aang, and he had my thick jacket in his hands. He ran beside me, lifting my back up from the snow. "Rori, why did you run? Why aaren't you wearing a jacket? Why were you just laying in the snow?" He asked. I ignored his questions, instead pulling the jacket over my shoulders, flipping my hair out of my face. It was frozen solid, of course. He put his arm under me, and I felt Momo wind himself around my neck. I stood up, catching myself just before I hit the ground. I heard several people calling out my name, but when I closed my eyes, I couldn't hear Sela's voice. Aang pulled me forward, his staff in his other hand.

"Why didn't you leave without me?" I asked throuw freezing lips.

"Because your a part of my family. I'm not going to leave you behind." Another sob racked my body, as I realized those were the same words I used on Sela. Aang stopped to steady me, and I caught my breath, finally standing up. "Sokka!" He yelled out. I heard him come crashing around the corner, and then stop in front of me.

"Rori?" He asked while I looked up at him. I let out another sob and started to collapse, but his arms wrapped around me just as my knees hit the snow. I wrapped my arms around him and stood stronger, wishing I hadn't laid in the snow for so long.

"I'm going to tell everyone the search is off." Aang told us while getting his glider ready. Sokka nodded and Aang pushed off from the ground, blasting me with cool air. I didn't shiver, I just leaned into Sokka.

"Why did you run?" He asked while pulling me up, princess style. I didn't struggle, I just laid my head against his chest to listen to his heart beat.

"Because I'm a freak. And now that my sister is gone, you don't even need me." I answered him.

"Your not a freak. Different, yes. But a freak? No. And just because your sister is gone, doesn't mean we are leaving you behind. It was her choice to leave." He told me while passing me to someone else, so he could climb up the wall. I slid out of the persons grip, instead following Sokka up the wall. The salt water on my face was melting, and I wiped it away with the dry part of my sleeve.

"But I don't want to leave her behind. I don't want to miss her. It'd be like losing my parents all over again." I whispered while stretching up over the edge. He guided me to a fire, not that far from the inside of the temple.

"We'll get you through it. If your sister wants to stay, there's nothing we can do to stop it." I nodded as someone draped a blanket over my shoulders, and another person used a towel to dry my hair off. I started shivering again, which the people warming me up took as a good sign.

"Thank you, everyone. We'll be back to visit." Aang told them as we climbed on Appa. I was bundled up in the saddle, Sokka climbing up beside me, and Katara sitting near Aang. I looked at Katara to see my necklace was gone.

"Katara, where is my necklace?" I asked while she looked down.

"I gave it to Sela. I knew you'd want to give it to her." She felt at her neck, and I looked over the crowd. I hard Aang call "yip, yip" just as I saw Sela, standing near the back of the crowd.

"W-wait!" I yelled to Aang as I threw the blankets off of me. I stumbled to the edge of the saddle as Appa took off, jumping and running towards where I had seen Sela. The crowd parted as I shoved through them, finally reching her and dropping to my knees.

"I'm sorry." She said while catching my eyes. I nodded, openeing my arms to her. She ran into them, wrapping her arms around my neck.

"I love you." I whispered as she squished me. She pulled back, holding out her hand.

"I love you too." She opened her hand to show me my necklace, which I took from her and unclasped it, reaching my arms around her neck to clasp it on her. She hugged me again, and I smoothed her hair before turning to face Teo.

"Take good care of her!" I told him with more tears running down my face. He nodded, and I tackled him in a hug before he could stop it. He laughed and hugged me back, before I pulled away to face his dad. "I'm sorry." I told him. He nodded, and I hugged him quickly before I faced Sela again.

"Will you come to visit?" She asked me, with an open look on her face.

"Of course, I will. I love you." I lied. I threw my arms around her, hugging her tightly once more before pulling bck and kisisng her forehead. "Don't forget about me." I told her.

"I never will." She told me as I wiped the tears off her. I smiled at her one last time, before turning to see Appa hovering in air. I looked at Aang to see him with tear streaks, violently wiping his face. Katara was openly letting them fall down her face, and Sokka was looking at the sky, a few tears falling down his face. Pretty much the whole village was crying. I let out a choked sob as I walked towards Appa. Right before I jumped up, I felt Sela's arms around me, squeezing me quickly before letting me go.

"I love you." She told me again, tears pouring down her face. I pulled back. wiping her tears off with the back of my sleeve.

"I love you too." I whispered. I turned back around, jumping to grab Appa's fur and pulling myself up and over the saddle. "Let's go." I told Aang. I turned back to face Sela, who was stretching her hand up. I stretched my arm back, trying to touch her fingertips. They connected just as Appa began flying up, and I heard Sokka let out a loud sob as I waved goodbye to Sela.

"It's just sooo sad!" Katara wailed out. I laughed, not even bothering to wipe my tears. I turned to look back at the Northern Air Temple, smiling weakly at Sela and Teo, who were standing on the very edge, watching me leave. I let out another sob, watching them until they were a small dot on the horizon. I finally laid my head down, letting the frown show through as I fully realized what we were doing. i _I was leaving my little baby sister behind, something I vowed I would never do._ The wind stung at my face, instantly drying my tears. I closed my eyes, wondering why I lied to her. _I didn't know why I promised, I could still die tomorow, but at least I knew she was safe. _I felt Sokka wrap his arms around my stomach, and I pulled his hand into mine, twining our fingers together. _ I could stay like this, as long as I knew that Sela was safe. I was ready to face anything._


	5. Chapter 5

ITS THURSDAY! yay for update-day! I really do like Thursdays. And I hope you'll enjoy this chapter! There are some. . .inappropriate parts in this chapter, so Don't Like, Don't Read. You can skip it if you want. And I feel really weird posting it, but went ahead and id it before my brain could stop me! Any questions, comments, or reviews, just review! It completely makes my day when I open my inbox and see so many reviews in there. And just adding me as a favorite author. I promise, it doesn't take that much work. And every time I hit a hundred or fifty mark I'll update sooner!

Yay for Sokka and Rori!

* * *

><p>"I'm not one to complain, but can't Appa fly any higher?" Sokka asked. I kept my head facing the sky, ignoring him for the most part. My thoughts were solely on the suns rays warming face. Not the random bursts of fire bending I kept doing when I was mad, or how I left Sela behind, but on the fact that the sun was warm. And the air around us was freezing.<p>

"I have an idea. Why don't we all get on your back so you can fly us to the North Pole?" Aang asked, exasperated.

"I'd love to. Everyone climb on, Sokka's ready for takeoff." I pounced on top of Sokka's back and sat, my nose in the air.

"Move!" I shouted, punching his shoulder while he tried to push me off. Katara was watching the ice around us stay in place, bored out of her mind.

"Look, were all just a little bit tired and cranky because we've been flying for two days straight." Katara told us. Momo jumped on my shoulder, adding to the weight. He finally rolled me off, and I lay down, trying to shield my head from him.

"For what? We can't even find the Northern Water Tribe. There's nothing up here." Sokka pointed out while trying to pull my arms away from my head. I heard the sound of a splash, and jumped up just in time to see a giant wall of ice sprout from the water. I immediately tried to melt the top of it, so that when Appa hit it, we wouldn't totally crash. But Aang yanked up on the reins just as I got it melted, making me fall onto Sokka. Another ice wall came out of nowhere, and I grabbed onto the edge of the saddle to keep from falling off. Appa swirled and hit the water, and I sat to see a big group of boats sail from behind the ice bergs.

"There water benders! We found the water tribe!" Katara yelled as we stood up. The benders had frozen the water around Appa so we couldn't move. But it didn't matter. We were finally going to get the trainer for Aang! We were here!

The four of us were sitting on Appa, gently gliding along, when the fog parted and we could see the edge of the North Pole

"There it is!" Aang called standing up. There was a symbol on the wall that I recognized, but I couldn't think of from where.

"The Northern Water Tribe. . . " Katara trailed off.

"We're finally here." Sokka said quietly, holding onto my shoulders for balance.

"It's so familiar." I muttered, straining to get a better look.

We watched as a group of benders made a circular hole in the ice, so we could get through. One of the men pointed for us to go down, and we did. When we reached the other side, more benders made the water level rise

"I can't believe how many benders live up here!" Katara commented.

"We'll find a master to teach us in no time!" Aang told us excitedly. We finally reached the top of the wall, and Appa swam along, while the three of us looked around at the majesty of everything. I couldn't help feeling deja vu, it was like I had been there before in a past life.

We followed another group of benders down the water, waving to passerbys who crowded onto the street.

"This place is beautiful." Katara commented, looking up at a giant ice building.

"Yeah, she is." Sokka muttered. I snapped my head to see him look down at the water, where a girl was passing in a boat.

"Someones got a crush. . " I sang and danced away from him.

"Do not!" He shouted, turning around.

A few moments later, they pulled us up to an area we could get off at. I was the first to start to jump off, but as I did, my foot caught on the saddle, and I fell face first towards the ice. Right before I hit the ground, I felt someone catch me, and I looked up to see a boy about as tall as Sokka, with tan skin, and brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, some pieces falling down.

"You okay?" He asked me. I nodded, a stupid smile coming on my face. Even through the layers of clothes, I could feel his muscles bulging. I stood up, shaking the hair from my face.

"I'm Rori." I told him, trying to get my cool back.

"I'm Kurruk." He stuck his hand out, and I took it, blushing. I heard Katara jump from the saddle, screaming and making a face plant.

He started to pull her up, but I blocked his way. "She's fine!" I laughed. For some reason, I wanted this boy to myself.

I felt Sokka and Katara glare at me, and then Sokka stood beside me, putting his arm around my shoulder.

"Someone's got a crush!" He sang.

"Shut up, Sokka!" I yelled, punching him on the shoulder before waving bye to Kurruk and following Aang.

"Are you watching for Kurruk?" Sokka sang. I shoved his shoulder, making him fall off his cushion. We were sitting at a feast, listening to some people drum. Truth was, I would scan the courtyard every few seconds for Kurruk. I saw some people place seaweed in front of Appa, running when he growled and attacked the food.

Some other people put a giant lump over a steaming pool of water, while a man began talking. "Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of our brother and sister from the southern water tribe. And they have brought with them someone very special, someone who many of us believed disappeared, until now. The avatar!" He yelled, gesturing to Aang. People began cheering as Aang waved, and I smiled, genuinely happy. "We also celebrate my daughters sixteenth birthday!" He stepped away from the table and let his daughter, the girl I had seen Sokka stare at on the boat, with long white hair. "Princess Yue is now of marrying age!" He called out. I saw Sokka lean backwards to get a better look at her and coughed "Crush" into my hand. I felt him hit my back and muttered an ow, feeling my hands start to burn. I placed them against the ice, taking deep breaths.

"Thank you, father. May the great Ocean and Moon spirits watch over us during the hard times." She called out to her people.

"Now, Master Pakku and his students will perform!" I looked to the stage to see Kurruk standing up there with an old man, and another boy. I smiled and smacked Sokka's stomach, pointing to him. He hit my hand back as Princess Yue sat down beside him. I didn't bother paying attention as I stared at Kurruk, mesmerized by the water dance.

"Staring!" Sokka coughed.

Without looking away, I answered him. "I'm not staring. I'm just looking fixedly without blinking." He mhmm'd me while standing up, and the second the cheering for the water dance ended, and I saw people filtering out, I turned to Katara.

"Wasn't that amazing? Kurruk was really good. If only Prince Sokka had shut up so I could watch better!" I elbowed him while Katara rolled her eyes.

"That was amazing, but I don't like Kurruk." I tilted my head to look at her. "He seems to perfect. He's hiding something or not real or anything!" She told me

"Whatever." Aang came back from talking to Pakku, looking tired.

"We have to meet him tomorrow at daybreak. No resting." He sighed, and I laughed.

"Good luck!" I laughed.

"What are you talking about? You have to be there too." My eyes widened and my face dropped.

"Whyyyyyy?" I asked.

"So you can be better at water bending!" He answered while Katara laughed.

"Hey, Rori." I turned with a smile to see Kurruk behind me, waving. I fake glared at Aang before running to him. "Did you see me?" He asked me with a smile. I shrugged and looked at my nails, acting like I didn't care.

"Yeah. You were alright." I sighed and looked away from him, towards the ice outside.

"Well then, I'll see you tomorrow." He told me with a smile. I nodded and glanced up at him, smiling back. The second he left I practically melted into the snow.

"If you will follow me, I can take you to your bed chambers." A lady said. We nodded and followed her, already prepared to sleep.

The next morning, Katara and Aang dragged me out of bed to see the water bending master.

"I can't believe were doing this! It's a dream come true." Katara told us, while we climbed about a hundred and ten steps to the top. "Ii finally get to learn from a real fire bending master!"

"GOOD MORNING MASTER PAKKU!" Aang yelled as soon as we reached the top.

"No, please, march right in. It's not like I was concentrating or anything." He told us sarcastically with a sigh.

"Uhh, these are my friends, Katara and Rori. The ones I told you about?" Me and Katara bowed as he introduced us. He turned to us and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, I think there has been a misunderstanding" He told us while forming a chair out of water and sitting down. "You didn't tell me your friend was a girl. In our tribe, it is forbidden to for women to learn wate rbending." I gasped and took a step back, feeling my hands heat up.

"That's sexist!" I yelled at him, clenching them into fists.

"It's the law." He shrugged.

"What do you mean, you won't teach me?" Katara took over. "We didn't travel the entire world so you could tell me no!" She shouted, stepping forward.

"No." He said again.

"But there must be other female water benders in your tribe!" Katara shouted.

"Here, the females use their water bending to learn from Yagoda to heal. I'm sure she would be happy to take the both of you as her student, despite the bad attitude." I felt like my hands would burn snow if I touched it, so I stuck them in my pockets, hearing a low sizzle come from it.

"I don't want to heal! I want to fight!" Katara yelled.

"Our tribe has customs." He countered.

"Yeah, well those customs stink!" I shouted at him.

"Yeah! If your not gonna teach Katara and Rori, then-" Aang was interrupted by Pakku.

"Then what?" Pakku threatened, standing up.

"Then I'm not gonna learn from you!" He shouted, stalking towards me. The heat drained form my hands as I realized what he said.

"Aang, no." I held out my hand to keep him from going any farther. He looked up at me, and I could see he was genuinely mad. "You still need to learn. Pakku is the one to teach you. Me and Katara can be the ones who find someone else to teach us." I told him quietly. I heard Katara reasoning with him, and I pushed Aang towards him while grabbing Katara's hand and leading her down the stairs.

"That little bitch." I muttered. "Stupid idiot can't teach us because were girls." I let go of her hand, and she waved bye to me, telling me she was going to learn from Yagoda. I stalked through the streets, looking for Sokka or Kurruk. Finally, I found him on a street corner, waving bye to Princess Yue. "Already made a date?" I asked bitterly.

"No, were just friends. Is someone jealous?" I shoved him closer to the water, and my hands left an imprint on his shoulder. "Woah, I can feel your heat through six different jackets. Why aren't you training with Pakku?"

"I'M NOT TRAINING WITH A FAT PIG HEAD!" I shouted at Sokka, shoving my hands onto a building and trying to get them to cool down.

"Calm down. Deep breaths." He told me. I took deep breaths, and the water stopped sizzling. I shoved them back in my pockets, feeling just a tiny bit better. "Want to tell me what happened?" He asked while we started walking.

"Not really. But that stupid trainer won't train me and Katara because were girls!" I told him angrily. "I mean, it's not like I was looking forward to training, but it was Katara's dream, and he squished it like a bug!" I turned a corner, and that symbol was emblazoned on the side of a building. "God!" I shouted, pointing my hand to the sign. "And I don't know how I recognize that thing! But its haunting me!" I melted the sign, stalking past the remains of it while Sokka ran to catch up.

"Well let's grab some food, and you can keep venting." He told me while steering my shoulders into a small food place.

After Sokka and I had grabbed some food, I headed back to our room to sleep and relax, adn Sokka had stayed with me at first, rubbing my back, but then left after it started to get dark. I had asked him why, and he told me he was going to talk to a friend. And ONLY a friend. I figured it was Princess Yue, shrugging into my sleeping bag and falling back to sleep. Instead, I had thought about Sela and what she could be doing, and how she was with Teo. Katara and Aang had joined me later, followed by Sokka.

"How was warrior training?" Katara asked while Sokka kicked his sleeping bag to me. I caught it and tossed it back to him. "That bad, huh?" Katara commented.

"No, it's not that. It's Princess Yue. She gave me stupid advice! And I need her advice!" I rolled over in my sleeping bag to face him.

"What kind of advice?" I asked.

"The kind thats none of your business." He shot back. I glared at him and threw a rock at him. He caught it and threw it back to me, making me get hit on the head. I jumped up, tackling him to the floor and shoving his face in the snow.

"Apologize!" I commanded.

"No!" He yelled while rolling us over, pinning my arms above my head. I tried to get out, but he was stronger than before, and I couldn't move.

"Hey! Calm down!" Aang yelled at us, pulling him off me. I stood up and wiped my mouth, glaring at him before collapsing back into my sleeping bag, which had to be right next to his, my hands sizzling the snow. I groaned and slapped them against my face, not even burning the skin.

"So hows water bending training?" He asked.

"Master poophead wont teach them because their girls." Aang explained. Katara flopped into her sleeping bag beside me, and I poked her with a finger.

"OW!" She shouted, holding her shoulder.

"Did I burn you?" I asked, completely serious.

"Not really." She sighed, and I put my hand back on my face, where it was finally cooling off.

"Why don't you just teach them, Aang?" Sokka asked, like it was obvious.

"Why didn't I think of that? At night, you can teach us whatever moves you learn from Mater Pakku." Katara stood up, getting excited. "That way, you have someone to practice with, and we get to learn water bending!" She smiled, and I rolled my eyes. "Everyones happy!"

"I'm not." Sokka muttered. I shoved his shoulder again and then covered my face like I didn't do that.

"But your never happy. Come on Aang, and Rori." I shook my head while Aang jumped up.

"No thanks. I'm going to wallow in my own sorrow until tomorrow." I told them morosely. I don't even know why I was so sad. I just was.

"Are you sure?" Aang asked while holding open the flap for Katara. I shivered and nodded, pulling my hood around my face. I heard the flap close, and Sokka rolled on top of me, crushing me with his weight.

"Why are you sad?" He asked. I shrugged and closed my eyes, trying to sleep.

"Tell me." I shook my head, and my hair hit him on the side of the cheek. He brushed it down behind my ear, and I blushed, looking beside me to the fire. "Tell me or I'll hit you." I opened one eye to look at him, he already had one fist raised in the air.

"Why are you so infuriating?" I asked while shoving him off of me and rolling over.

"What can I say? You bring out the best in me." I laughed harshly and snuggled my head into my arms. "Come on." I heard him stand up, and then he yanked me to my feet, making me squeak and grab towards my sleeping bag.

"Where are we going?" I asked him while he dragged me out of the room and into the frozen street. He looked both ways before dragging me left.

"Just walking." He told me while pulling me up and over a bridge. I planted my feet into the ground, freezing water over them so he couldn't pull me anywhere. He stopped and turned to me, cornering me against the bridge.

"Tell me." He pleaded. I broke down and told him, as fast as I could so he wouldn't understand most of it.

"I'm just worried about Sela with Teo and his dad I didn't get to tell her I loved her enough and I am so scared that I'm going to die before I get to see her again and I want you to tell her I die if I do and I want her to get my necklace if I do. Both of them. And I'm constantly worried that I don't fit in since I can bend two elements and I'm a freak and I hate it and all I want to do is just go back to the cabin before all this happened and stop it from burning down. And you remember what Chey said about running away from the army and not surviving? I think that's what happened to my parents. And then why can I bend fire and water? Can Sela water bend? I've never heard of anyone doing what I can do. Am I the only person? Would the fire nation kill me if they found out?" I finally stopped to take a breath, looking Sokka in the eyes. "That's why I'm sad."

He was looking at the river below us, but in the next second he snapped his eyes to mine. "Your not going to die tomorrow. I'll make sure of that." I groaned and ran my hands through my hair, just trying to get my point across.

"You can't do that, Sokka. You can't stop an arrow from piercing my heart in the next second!" I yelled at him, I could feel my hands heating up.

"Yes I can!" He shouted back, pushing me against the bridge.

"No you can't!" I shouted back, shoving him and unfreezing the water around my ankles. We began shoving each other, and then Sokka put both of his hands on either side of me, trapping me. I stopped and looked up at him, my arms on his shoulders. He dipped his head to mine, and I felt my eyes close, but I shoved him back against the other side of the bridge, my arms trapping him. I tilted my face up to his before pulling back, trying to make up my mind. I felt him dip his head to mine again, holding my cheek in place. I froze and pulled back, running back to the tent.

"Rori! Wait!" He yelled after me. I made it inside, stopping to look around the tent for a minute. I heard Sokka come in, dropping the flap back into place. He spun me in his arms, not even giving me a chance to think before he pressed his lips to mine quickly. He pulled back, and I wound my arms around his neck, pulling him back down to me and pushing our lips together. It was a frenzy, pulling back and then kissing again, not even breathing for the first minute. I pulled back, and he kissed my cheek, trailing down my neck and shoving my jacket down my shoulder for more access. I let the jacket drop to the floor, breathing hard while I pushed his jacket off, trailing my hands down his stomach, trying to push his shirt off. He finally helped me, after sucking on my neck, definitely leaving a mark.

He pushed my own shirt up and over my head, running his hands over my stomach and back, before finally pushing the skirt down my legs, leaving me in my tights and brassier. I pushed his pants down, desperate to feel his warm skin against my own. He pulled my tights down, kissing me hashly on the mouth before finally untying my brassier, pushing it off my body, while I pulled his boxers off him. He wrapped his arms around my back, trailing his mouth down to my neck while I arched into him, trying to get him to move on. My hands were gripping his biceps, and he lightly nipped at my neck, making me moan. He pushed the tights down my legs, and finally we were both naked, our eyes locked on each other, not daring to look anywhere else while he spread my legs and slowly pushed inside of me. I leaned backwards, squeezing his arms while pain seared across my abdomen. He stopped for a minute before pushing in deeper, and I moved my hand to his neck and pulled him down my mouth, trying to keep from crying out. I bit down on his lip, and I felt him groan and begin pumping, my legs wrapped tightly around his back. The snow underneath me was cold, but nothing mattered except for Sokka, and the way his hands moved across my body, warm and calloused. I arched into him, my mouth opening against hs. His tongue traced lips before massaging my tongue. I bit down on his tongue when an orgasm rocked my body, unintentionally rolling me on top, into a sitting position. I moaned as Sokka rotated beneath me, holding my hips steadily. I slid up and down, moans escaping my lips every few seconds when he hit a place that made the pleasure double. He rolled me back on bottom, pushing in and out of me faster. He groaned and pushed hard against me, causing me to arch my back. He slid his arms down mine, catching my hands and stretching them over my head, bringing us face to face. I looked into his eyes, and as I caught them, he hit a spot that sent me careening over the edge. I cried out, but his own mouth caught mine, pushing me into the snow. I felt him finally let go as I arched into him, and then he collapsed onto me, gently kissing my neck. We stayed like that for a moment while the sweat dried off our bodies, before pulling our clothes back on, not talking. I laid down on my sleeping bag, and I felt Sokka pull his sleeping bag next to mine. I turned to face him. smiling lightly when he pecked my forehead before wrapping an arm around me and pulling me into him. It was quiet for a few moments, and then Aang and Katara stalked in.

"Do you think we should wake them up?" I heard Aang ask.

"No way. This is the first time both of them have gotten along since we got here. We'll tell them in the morning." I heard Katara reply. Both sounded angry and sad. I ignored it, instead snuggling into Sokka's neck, and smiling when he tightened his grip around me.

We stood in a line , facing the elder people. Pakku wasn't saying anything, which I was glad about. They had told us when we woke up, what had happened. I had acted calmly while Sokka had started yelling at them, calming down when I jumped on his back and tried beating him over the head.

"What do you want me to do? Force him to take Aang back as his student?" One of the people asked.

"Yes! Please!" Katara asked with a smile.

"I suuggest he might change his mind if you swallow your pride and apologize to him." The man said. I saw Katara look back at Aang before muttering a "fine."

"I'm waiting, little girl." Pakku taunted.

"No!" Katara yelled at him. "NO WAY AM I APOLOGIZING TO A SOUR OLD MAN LIKE YOU!" Katara broke the ice around her whiile she yelled, and I made a mental note never to get her angry on ice. The pots of water cracked and broke while Aang tried to get her attention.

"Uh. Katara." He tried, but Katara ignored him.

"I'll be outside if your man enough to fight me!" She called out, I saw Princess Yue and her father gasped, but I just shrugged it off. I saw Katara stalk out of the room, and I followed her, trying to keep her riled up so she would give it her all. I knew that man wouldn't back down from a fight. And if she won, he'd be forced to teach her water bending.

"Are you crazy, Katara? Your not going to win this fight!" Sokka told her while we ran down the steps. She pulled off her jacket, and I grabbed it for her.

"Yes, she will. I know she is ten times stronger than Pakku. She just has to focus her energies."

"You don't have to do this for me, I can find another teacher." Aang protested. We reached the bottom of the stairs and I pushed her jacket to Sokka, who grabbed it for me.

"I'm not doing this for you. Someone needs to slap some sense into that guy." Katara shouted. She turned to see Pakku descending the stairs. "So you decided to show up?" She taunted. He walked past her without saying a word. "Aren't you gonna fight?"

"Go back to the healing huts, wheere you belong." He answered over his shoulder. I saw her form a water whip, then hit Pakku over the head with it.

"Fine you want to learn to fight? Study closely!" He shouted while pulling water from two of the pots out and forming a circle.

"And so the fight begins. . " I trailed off, leaning to sit back on the stairs. I mostly listened to the sound of them fighting, staring up at the sky so I wouldn't be tempted to help.

"Come back here! I'm not finished with you yet!" Katara yelled. I looked down to see her trapped in an icicle prison, Pakku beding over her necklace.

"Yes, you are." He paused for a moment before picking the necklace up. "This is my necklace."

"No it's not! It's mine! Give it back!" She shouted, still struggling.

"I made this sixty years ago, for the love of my life." I melted the water around Katara, and she stood limply. "For Kana."

"My gran-gran was supposed to marry you?" Katara asked.

"I carved this necklace for your grandma at a very young age. I thought we would have a long, happy life together. I loved her."

"But she didn't love you back, did she? It was an arranged marriage. Gran-gran wouldn't let your stupid customs rule her life. That's why she left. It must have taken a lot of courage. . ." I saw Yue burst into tears and run off, and a second later, Kurruk ran after her.

"Wow, that was a change in the plot." I laughed, pushing Sokka. But as I looked into his eyes, it hit me. I knew why I recognized the symbol.

I leaned down against the step, stretching an arm out to Sokka. He grabbed hold, sliding down with me.

"What is it?" He asked. I couldn't look him in the eyes.

"My mom." I muttered, thinking as far back as I could.

_"Mommy!" I squealed, grabbing at her when I scraped my knee on the side walk._

_"Shh, baby, it's alright." She leaned down to pick me up, and through my tears, I could see a small tattoo, the exact same symbol as the one for the North Pole._

But that would mean she was from here. She ran away. And my Dad did, too. They ran away together, because my father had something to do with the fire nation army. That's why they burned our home down.

I was standing on a bridge, the same bridge Sokka had taken me to last night.

"Rori?" I heard Sokka call, I turned to look at him.

"Yeah?" I called back. He ran up to me, grabbing both my hands. I turned my head to the moon, wondering if Sela was looking at it too.

"You ran out of there pretty fast. I wanted to make sure your okay." I nodded at him, emptying my head.

"I'm fine." I assured him.

"Good, then lets head back." He grabbed my hand and began pulling me to the tent. I snuck one last look at the moon. Was it possible that my parents were still alive? Still hiding?


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: Sorry this is so overdue! But don't worry, I have no practice next week and will right the story as soon as I can. I really feel bad about this story, I feel like's its losing it's spark (haha, it's a pun, but you won't get it untill the next chapter :P), but it will regain its power and mightiness soon! Thanks to everyone who read it! Even though I would LOVE some reviews on this one, and/or any ideas on where it's going! The next chapter will probably be the end for this book, and then as soon as I get more time I will start the next one (I have HUGE plans for that one) untill next time, my lovelies!**

I leaned back as I watched Katara prepare to fight another water bender. It was her turn, I had beaten the last one in two seconds.

"You can't top it!" I yelled to her while she just smirked in my direction.

Two seconds later, and the guy was trapped ten feet in the air, still trying to figure out what happened. I laughed and ran up to high five Katara.

"Even?" She asked when I tagged her hand.

"Even." I replied.

"Would anyone care for a rematch against these two young ladies?" Master Pakku asked. I made a menacing face at the boys, growling and pretending to roar. Two of them backed up in fear, and I laughed while Pakku tapped my shoulder. Me and Katara turned to face him. "Both of you advance faster than any water benders I have ever seen." I smiled lightly and rubbed my hair down my shoulder, where I had taken to wearing it. "You have proven with fierce determination and concentration, you can accomplish anything." He turned to Aang, who was playing with Momo on an air ball. "Raw talent is not enough. Aang!"

"Yes, Master Pakku?" Aang yelled back, dropping Momo on his own head.

"Care to step into the sparring circle?" Pakku asked. "I figured since you have time to play with house pets, you have already mastered water bending." I laughed while Momo jumped off, and Aang jumped up to stand in front of us.

"I wouldn't say mastered, but check this out!" He twirled in a circle, gathering snow around him until he formed a snow man.

"May I?" I asked Master Pakku.

"You may." I easily froze the water around him, leaving him shivering in his own creation and looking up at us. Pakku left, frustrated, and Katara melted the ice.

"What do you think Sokka's doing?" I asked Katara while we stood around, watching Aang roll in a circle around Momo.

"I don't know. He told me he was going to talk to Yue today. And then he was going to eat lunch." She nodded, and I looked up at the sky. Grey snow was just beginning to fall, but when I caught it in my glove, it didn't melt.

"Oh, no." Katara whispered, looking at it in my hand. Aang rolled to a stop, looking up at the sky.

"It's soot." I told her, smashing it in my hand.

"There's so much. There are probably fire nation ships nearby." She whispered. I nodded, looking back up to the sky. A gong sounded as I realized what this meant. Another day of fighting. Another chance to be killed. Hoards of people ran up the steps, gathering around us.

"The day we have feared for so long, has arrived." Yue's father spat at us. "The fire nation is on our doorstep." I leaned against the column we were surrounding, putting my head in my hands. This was terrible. Sokka was distracted by something, I could tell. I had to tell him, before we got too involved, that I couldn't do this. Katara grabbed my bare hand, and squeezed, making me look up at her. I looked into her eyes, and they shone, like the brave warrior I know she could be. "It is with great sadness, I call my family here before me, knowing well that some of these faces are about to vanish from our tribe." I looked down at the snow, it was still white under my foot. "But they will never vanish from our hearts. Now as we approach the battle for our existence, I call upon the great spirits!" He boomed over us. "Spirits of the Ocean! Spirits of the Moon! Be with us!" He paused to look down at us. "I'm going to need volunteers for a dangerous mission." Instantly, without even thinking about it, me and Sokka stood up.

"Count me in!" He yelled. I nodded, while Katara whispered our names.

"Sokka! Rori!" But the man shouted over her.

"Be warned. Many of you will not return. Come forward to meet my mark, if you accept the task." Several other men stood up, and I gulped as I stepped forward. Sokka grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back as I set my foot down.

"You don't have to do this, Rori." He whispered harshly.

"Your the one that doesn't have to do it." I told him, jumping over a kid to rush forward. I stood in the line, and Yue's father nodded at me. I nodded back, bowing, and he painted three waves on my forehead. I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding while Sokka got his mark.

I stood in the front line, staring at the horizon with Sokka beside me. Katara had hugged the both of us, crying into my shoulder, and Aang had given us another hug when she let go. My breathing was shallow, and I clenched and unclenched my fists.

I had gotten the hang of controlling my fire bending, and I had managed to shoot fire out when I wasn't mad a few minutes ago. I had taken my jacket off, since I would need to be able to move as quickly as possible. It was mostly waiting around right now, and I realized I had to talk to Sokka before the first hit.

"Sokka, I need to talk to you!" I whispered harshly, pulling him away from everyone.

"What?" He asked annoyed.

"About a few nights ago." He stiffened, and I pretended not to notice. "We shouldn't have done it. Our main priority is keeping Aang safe, not each other. Both of us were just caught up in the moment, and it was wrong." I finally finished, letting my breath out. He didn't get to answer, because in the next second, Aang spotted the first fire ball. I ran back up to the front, ready to fight with my conscience clear. But then, the fireball hit the wall, sending us flying. I grabbed on to the first thing I could, which was Katara. She held onto my arms, and I held on to her, keeping her in my arms when we were buried under snow. She melted it for me, and we both jumped up, me running to where Appa and Aang were still standing. "GET READY!" I shouted over the commotion. I jumped over broken pieces of ice to see another ball fly over the wall. I worked as fast as I could, melting the nearest building and sending the water up to meet it, causing mist and ash to rain down. But it landed a tiny ball in the river, and I turned back to face Appa, who was still standing. "Good luck!" I shouted to Aang as he took off. I looked into the horizon, there was only one ship. _Why only one? That much soot could not be made from one ship. _I turned back to face the rest of the villagers, trying to figure out what I could do. I melted the snow into a mushy mess, making it easier for people to climb out of. I saw Sokka embrace Katara, and then look at me, determined. I nodded, and he nodded back.

"Men and woman, you'll be infiltrating the fire nation army. That means you'll all need one of these uniforms." Kurrak strutted out, wearing it proudly. I heard Sokka laughed, and I punched him, trying to get him to shut up.

"What's your problem?" Kurrak asked.

"Fire Navy uniforms don't look like that." He said simply.

"Of course they do! These are actual suits captured form fire navy soldiers." Kurrak countered.

"When? Like, a hundred years ago?" I laughed, loving the way Sokka made the most dangerous situation lighter.

"Eighty five." Yue's dad answered sadly.

"The fire nation doesn't wear shoulder spikes anymore." He pointed out. "The newer uniforms are more streamline." He poked Kurraks spike, causing it to make a funny noise.

"How do we know we can trust this guy? Such bold talk for a new recruit." Kurrak quipped. The two got into a staring contest, which I jumped into the middle of and shoved their faces away.

"Sokka is from our sister tribe, Kurrak, and he is a capable warrior, and I value his input." The two started the staring contest again, and I shoved both their faces to face forward before crossing my arms. "Now, our first objective is to determine the name of their commanding officer."

"His name is Xiao." Sokka offered up. "Middle aged, big sideburns."

"Bigger temper?" I asked while high fiving Sokka.

"Sokka, I want you to tell everything you know to Kurrak. He's leading this mission. Kurrak, show Sokka your respect. I expect nothing less from my future son in law." My mouth dropped open, and I turned to glare at him.

"You little slut!" I shouted the second Yue's father left the room. "You lead me on!" I yelled. I felt Sokka grab my shoulders and yank me backwards.

"Calm down." He whispered into my ear. I took a deep breath and let it out, trying not to shoot fire.

I was taking my time, talking with some water benders about why I chose to do this.

"It felt right." I answered simply.

"Aren't you worried about dying? Aren't you going to get married soon?" One of them asked. I shook my head lightly.

"Yes, and no. I have a little sister, but shes safe at the Northern Air Temple. And I don't turn marrying age until a few weeks from now. I'm not worried about marrying at all." I answered. I was the youngest one there, with Sokka being just above me, and Kurrak above that.

"Have you fought before?" Another asked me.

I nodded and grabbed two beautiful katanas and pushed them in place of my dagger and water pack. The blades looked sharp, and the handles were made of blue and white marble, carved from the same stone. The very tip of the handle had the North Pole insignia carved into it. They hung limply at my side, waiting to be used.

"I fight best with two swords. Not including water." I answered solemnly.

"It's not too late to drop out." The same one told me. I shook my head, pulling my hair into a knot at the top of my head.

"I'm not going to back out." I told them. Just then, I heard a yell from behind me, and I turned to see Sokka tackle Kurrak to the floor.

"Hey!" I shouted, running over to pull Sokka off of him. I wrapped my arms around his stomach and arms, but he kept struggling, and then Yue's father stepped in.

"ENOUGH! Sokka, you are off the mission. Rori, you too. I've decided you can't do this." My mouth dropped open as I turned with fire in my hands to face him.

"WHAT?" I yelled.

"You are almost marrying age, and I don't need to have your death over my head." He answered simply while Sokka yelled after Kurrak.

I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself down. "If I weren't a girl, you'd still let me go! It's not fair! I want to go!" I yelled, hitting the ice near me and causing it to melt and boil around my hand. Sokka stood beside me, obviously mad. I turned to him and punched his shoulder too, as the rest of the waterbenders exited quietly. "I hate you." I muttered under my breath to him.

"Is something wrong, Sokka?" Yue's father asked. I at cross legged, pouting, while Sokka sharpened his boomerang.

"Oh no. Kurrak's out killing some soldiers while I'm stuck here, sharpening my boomerang with Princess Pouty." I turned to glare at him before resuming my pout. "Everythings fine."

"Listen to me. I took you off the mission for selfish reasons. I have a special task in mind for you two." I turned slowly to look at him, my pout disappearing.

"If it's one of those _special_ missions where I sit and watch over some stupid stone, count me out." I told him.

"I want you to guard my daughter, Princess Yue." I fully turned to face him, now listening.

"Sure. That shouldn't be too hard." Sokka answered. I stood up, stretching my limbs.

We found Katara in the garden, where she told us Aang had been taken by Zuko.

"Oh no. This is all my fault. If I had left sooner and came here, or if I hadn't accepted the mission at all. . " I trailed off. I felt Sokka put a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to see him shake his head at me.

"It's no ones fault. Only Zuko's." I sighed and nodded, realizing he was right, and the best thing we could do now was to look for him.


	7. Chapter 7

A

**(A/N: Sorry this is so overdue, I've had this up forever and never got around to uploading it. Crappy ending to a crappy story, I know, I plan on redoing the entire thing LATER. I have s tory that I love right now and am typing it up, but I can only go so fast! I've learned my lesson, only upload if you are finished typing. I promise, I will try my best to get better at that! Sophomore year is a lot tougher than freshie! But I will update at least every weekend! Thanks to all my loyal followers!)**

Another blast of fire set the soft grass we were on shaking, and Katara fell to her knees.

"I can't believe I lost him." She muttered while gripping the grass in her hands. I got on my knees next to her and put an arm around her thin shoulders.

"You didn't lose him. Zuko stole him, and we are going to get him back. He's not going to get away with this." I comforted her.

"You did everything you could. And now, we need to do everything we can to get him back." Sokka told her from behind us. I watched the two fish circled each other peacefully, unaware of the havoc going on around us. Katara hugged me briefly, and I pulled her to her feet. "Zuko can't have gotten far. We'll find him. Aang's gonna be fine."

She looked at him carefully before nodding. She stepped out of my arms and towards Appa, while Sokka pushed Yue up. I stood next to him for a minute, watching Katara get situated, before whispering casually to him.

"Do you really think we can find him?" He put an arm lightly on my shoulder, avoiding my eyes.

"I really think we can try." I nodded and took a deep breath, wiping under my eyes, before climbing Appa.

After a quick fight about who would steer Appa, Sokka and I settled onto his neck comfortably, me in front, and Sokka with his hands on top of mine and his legs encasing me. A few minutes of freezing cold air later, I settled into his chest and slipped my hands into his, both of us holding the reins. The air was filled with snow and soot, and it was nearly impossible to see five feet ahead of us, but I managed to scan the endless white for any sign of color change.

Every few minutes we would stop and get to the ground, searching for any sign of life. But there was none. Each time Sokka climbed back up behind me, I felt him get stiffer and colder, and nothing would stop it. I tried heating my hands and pressing them into his, and he curled his fingers into mine for a while, untill we reached the ground again. I was beginning to feel like it was useless.

"I should have stayed back there, and help fought." I told him as we sailed into the air again.

"We need you here. And-"

"They need me there, too. The Fire nation soldiers are relentless, and they won't stop until they are forced to." I countered quickly.

"Well we're not turning back." He huffed and his arms tightened around the reins again. I glared at our hands, wishing there was something more I could do. A few seconds later and a bright light shot over our heads.

"Look! That's gotta be Aang! Let's go!" I heard Sokka mutter a yip yip and we turned towards where the light had fallen, a tiny cave that barely stood out. The light illuminated it for a minute before fading, and we headed down that way. We landed near two small figures, and I jumped off, Sokka following, along with Katara. Zuko watched us carefully for a minute, his eyes trailing over me. I grimaced before pulling the katanas from the hook in my belt, brandishing them elegantly while smirking at him.

As soon as Katara had him distracted, I dove towards Aang and sliced the rope from his back and hands, Sokka muttering about good rope qualities while I helped Aang to his feet. He grimaced and shivered while we hurried back to Appa, Zuko laying face down in the snow.

"We can't just leave him like this. He could die." I sighed at Katara's statement while Sokka slid behind me in the saddle.

"Watch us." Sokka commented before wrapping his arms around me. I glanced up and saw Yue look us over, amusement in her eyes, before looking back towards the vast whiteness.

"No, if we leave him he'll die." Aang told us over his shoulder before jumping off. I sighed and rubbed my eyes, pouting as Aang dragged Zuko out of the snow.

"Yeah this makes a lot of sense. Bring the guy who is trying to kill us." Sokka stated while Aang got him into the saddle with us. His head was faced towards me, the scarred side hidden in the saddle. I watched him for a few moments, Appa pushing off the snow and heading back towards the village.

"I'm really uncomfortable with this." I told them while scooting as far back as I could in Sokka's arms.

"Your not the only one." Katara answered. I settled back, realizing how much different he looked than before. His facial structure had mostly remained the same, and he had never been one of those chubby kids, more along the lines of a muscle head.

Just a few minutes after flying, the moon turned blood red. I gasped and shot up, my mind on freak out mode. "Whats going on?" I asked Aang.

"I. . .don't know." I stood on the edge of the saddle, easily balancing myself, and I nervously clenched and unclenched my hands. I saw Yue grab her head as we passed in front of the moon, and Sokka say something. I glanced at Aang to see him holding his head tightly. I felt something pass through me, and slid into the saddle, acting like I was listening to Yue as she told us how she got her name, my eyes on Zuko. It had only lasted a second, and I felt weaker, and yet stronger at the same time. I had no idea how to process it.

I stood back with Yue as the others rushed inside. "You should really talk to Sokka." She informed me. I turned to her sharply, shivering in my thin clothes.

"How do you know what I should do?" She smiled and I glared at the ground.

"Sokka talked to me, about you two. He really cares for you, you know." I shrugged and kicked at the ground, feeling like I should be doing something worthwhile.

"Doesn't matter what we want. Aang is our first priority." I shrugged, though I was really curious about what he said about me. "Besides, don't you and him have a thing together?" I asked, suspicion creeping into my voice.

She laughed, despite our situation. " Oh, no! He's like a brother to me! We just talked to each other to have something to do. You should have heard about how he was talking about Kurrack when you were crushing on him." I blushed and looked at the ground before standing straighter.

"But you are going to marry him." I told her gently. She looked forlorn at the ground.

"Unfortunately. If there was any way at all I could get out of it, I would. My first priority is my people, and if I let someone like Sokka get out of my grasp, I would do everything I could to get him back." I bit my lip and nodded, actually thinking about it. Then I shook my head.

"Let's go see what's taking the others so long." She nodded and followed me in the tiny door, me shielding her stealthily and hiding behind Appa. There was a moment of silence, and I told Yue to stay where she was. I carefully walked to the wall, and upon trying waterbending, realizing it wouldn't work, I used firebending to melt my hands into the water and using them as foot holds. I steadily made my way up and around the room, the others spotting me as I got behind the Fire Nation soldiers. I knew what Xiao was going to do, try and kill the fish for his own good, and I knew that couldn't happen. I stealthily dropped to the floor, behind the Fire Nation soldiers. Sneaking up behind one, I kicked it in the back of the neck as hard as I could. It fell forward, and the other warriors turned to look at me.

"Whoops, didn't think this one through." I shrugged before kicking the warrior closest to me in the face, before spinning around and punching it. The stupid uniform prevented me from doing much harm, and I grabbed my katanas from my belt loop before flipping backwards, and a soldier shot fire at me. I gestured my hands to push the fire away, and was shocked when it actually worked. I saw a volley of fire head for the soldiers, and I smiled brightly as I saw Uncle helping me. Then, I realized the red moon was gone. In fact, the moon was gone. I turned angrily to Xiao, holding my katanas up to his throat.

"Take another step and you die." I told him darkly. He ran from me, and I chased him as fast as I could, taunting him by flipping over him and holding my katanas out in front of me. He had a look of pure fear on his face, and I chased him outside as the others took care of the situation in here. I heard Sokka call out for me, but I couldn't answer as a blade was held against my throat and I scrambled to the other side before kicking a fire nation shoulder in the gut and sliced my katanas under the open spot where the helmet went under, grimacing as blood was on my sword and the soldier fell to the ground in a coughing fit.

I took a moment to recover before chasing down Xiao, determined to kill him.

Even as another wave of fire shot out in front of Xiao, I ducked and rolled to the side as he turned back.

"Zuko?" "Your alive?" We said at the same time.

"You tried to have me killed!" Zuko shouted at Xiao, and I took this as my chance to put my katanas back up to his neck, pressing him against me.

"Try anything and I won't hesitate to slice your head off." I told him as I pushed the blades onto his throat. Zuko jumped down and nodded at me, facing Xiao.

"Yes I did. Your the blue spirit, enemy of the fire nation, and helper of the Avatar." He tried backing me up, and I tightened my grip on the blades, cutting his neck a little.

Zuko narrowed his eyes at Xiao before looking past him, to me.

"Let him go." He commanded. I huffed, but loosened my grip on the katanas.

"I get the kill shot." I told him before jumping off the little balcony we were on to avoid being hit. I didn't actually pay attention to what they were doing, mostly thinking of what I would say to Sokka when I next saw him. I dodged their blows carefully, keeping near to the wall while following them on their little journey. I hadn't paid any attnetion to the two for a few moments as I followed them onto the bridge, and all of a sudden, I felt something slam into me. I gasped as fire burnt straight through the chain link shirt I was wearing, and burnt my skin on my right arm. I screamed as loud as I could while dropping the katanas and leaned against a wall, biting my lip and leaning my head back. The moon was back, and I felt more powerful as I saw a fist of water reach out and grab Xiao. I closed my eyes and stretched my arm in front of me, whimpering and squeezing my eyes to try and ignore it. I felt someone grab my hand and opened my eyes to see Zuko looking at it.

"It was Xiao that hit you." He informed me. I nodded and took a deep breath, pushing the pain into the back of my head.

"Thank you." I told him quietly

"You don't need to thank me. You looked like you were holding up pretty well back there." I shrugged, wishing I could do something about the cuts and bruises on his face. "Rori. . "

"I'm surprised you still remember my name." I joked. He smiled quickly before returning to his bored expression.

"Of course I would. You were the closest thing I had to a friend, and then you ran away." I rolled my eyes and tried bending my arm, the skin still raw and burnt.

"Well, that wasn't my choice. And I think it was for the best. We've both grown up a bit." He nodded. "I should be going. I need to get this checked out." I told him calmly.

"Yeah. I should uh.. be.. . Looking for Uncle." I nodded, and then looked him in the eyes.

"Zuko, were going to see each other again." He nodded, and attempted a smile, but it looked more forced.

"Yeah. But, I'll have to be strictly professional." I nodded.

"Of course. I'll. . .See you around." He nodded and turned around, and I turned the other way, heading towards the village center. I still had no idea what I was going to say when I found Sokka and them.

I hadn't been able to find any of the guys last night. But I had made it to the temporary hospital. There were people with worse injuries than me, and I was happy nonetheless when one of the healers rubbed some ointment on my arm and then wrapped it in gauze. She told me to wait a few days for it to heal, then I could take the bandages off. And then she ordered me to stay there, and sleep. Which I did gratefully.

After I ate breakfast, I walked around the city and took my time helping people, being careful not to jostle my arm too much. I walked carefully to the bridge where I had stood just two days ago, watching the first Fire Nation ship come over the horizon.

So much seemed to happen since then.

"Rori?" I turned to see Sokka a few feet behind me. I smiled at him and reached my hand down to him, pulling him up through the rubble. He crashed into me, and we ended up with my back against the wall, Sokka's hands on either side of me. "Sorry." He muttered before pulling back. I grabbed his hand and pulled him back to me, grinning widely. "What happened to your arm?" He asked while tracing the bandage.

"Xiao." I answered simply. Sokka's fist clenched, and I put my hand over it. "Xiao is dead now." I snuck my other arm around his neck, pulling him towards me.

"You killed him?" I shrugged as Sokka wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into him.

"Not exactly." I moved my free hand to Sokka's cheek, stroking it softly. "Sokka." I couldn't think of anything to say. My eyes caught his, and I looked into them carefully, just watching. I had grown so much more comfortable with him. And I felt like I could be myself with him, not just some little. . .I don't even know. I saw Sokka get closer, and then he closed his eyes and brushed his nose against mine. I smiled and closed my eyes, leaning my forehead against his.

"Your so much stronger than I thought you ever could be." He whispered against my lips, not even touching them. I leaned my head up a little bit and caught his lips in a quick kiss before pulling back. "Your so much more beautiful, funnier, and smarter." He pushed his lips against mine again, and I relished in the heat of his kisses, spreading a warmth from my head to my toes. I smiled against his lips, not able to convey how good I felt right now. It's like, all I ever thought about Sokka, and how many fights we'd had, just melted. We stood as close as we could to each other, mostly just whispering lowly to each other and kissing. Especially kissing.

"Sokka, about what I said earlier, about us. . . ." He stiffened for a minute, and I cradled his cheek in my hand. "I want to give us a try. But. . ." I sighed as he kissed me, harder this time. I forgot what I was saying and instead got more involved in the kiss, biting his lip softly before opening my mouth to him. His hand pressed into the small of my back, and I felt a wave of warmth run through my stomach. I smiled into his lips, pulling away slightly before he followed my lips and ran his tongue along my bottom lip. He stood in between my legs, kissing me harder and tangling our hands together before wrapping an arm around my waist to pull us closer. "We can't do this here." I told him quietly while he kissed my cheek and neck softly.

"But I want you right now." I smiled and ran my fingers through his hair, releasing it from the ponytail. He stopped what he was doing for a second and I took that moment to pull his face back up to mine, our lips pushing together. He opened his lips automatically, and I smirked as I had the upper hand. Our tongues tangled together and we fought for dominance, constantly moving to get better access.

"Guys?" I heard Aang ask. I pulled back from Sokka, even as he waved Aang off. He finally pouted and crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against me.

"Yeah?" I asked Aang with a smile on my face while wrapping my arms around Sokka's neck.

Sokka and Katara looked at each other before turning to us. "Finally!" They said at the same time. They began harassing us about how long its taken us to see what was right in front of us, and I whispered in Sokka's ear how he should take it like a man. I kissed his cheek lightly, acting like I hadn't said anything to him. My feet swung back and forth, and Sokka put his hands on my knees, slowing tracing patterns. I only gave him a few seconds of this before turning to face him and kissing him on the mouth, making him turn in my arms again.

"Stop doing that." Sokka muttered against my lips when I smiled. He finally pulled back, much to my disappointment. "We should go check on Katara and Aang." He told me softly, while still wrapping his arms around my waist. I nodded and breathed in the cool air before hopping off of the wall. "We have a long mission ahead of us." He informed me.

I looked at the ground while nodding. "I know. But I think we're ready for it." He put a finger under my chin and tilted my head to face him, placing his forehead against mine slowly.

"I'm glad." He pulled away and kissed my cheek before tangling our fingers together, and dragging me with him to find Katara and Aang.


End file.
